The Pokonomist
by rabidcatking
Summary: The world of humans has been reduced to tatters by the threat of pokemon. Now nothing more than a collection of stronghold cities, the human race depends upon the Pokemon trainers to protect it. One such Pokemon trainer finds it in his heart to forgive...
1. Last month

Authors note: hey there, world! I would like to begin by sadly acknowledging that i do not own Pokemon. Rats! I do, however, own all of the inventive, creative, and ultimately fictional add-ons to the pokemon world that are being used in this story. But no worries, Lawyers! This is purely non profit, and if any profit is being made by this whatsoever it is being done without my consent. You may sue them.

Now, to all readers: the only thing i can tell you for sure is that i am going to put hours and hours of effort into this. Whether or not those hours are rewarding will depend heavily on the responses to what i wright, so please be considerate of that. the other thing i can guarantee is that one chapter a week is probably beyond my abilities, but that i will try my best to please any readers who show interest with consistent up-dating. should you ever lose faith in this stories continuation, just remember that i have the whole plot pre-written, and that i wouldn't have written twenty eight pages of blue print for this thing if i wasnt dedicated. Never lose faith! So please, enjoy this Prologue of the pokonomist, and leave a suggestion or two for me afterwords if you have the time.

THE POKONOMIST

He found it hard to go to bed that night, but sheer force of will and stubbornness drowned out the excitement, and he found himself drifting after only a short while of tossing and turning.

The moment he opened his eyes the next morning, the excitement returned. He prepared for the day with more enthusiasm than five years of schooling had ever invoked in him. And why not? It was, after all, the last month of school, and it was going to stand out from the rest of his years fabulously.

Searching through his wardrobe was always a quick process, and He quickly threw on a black shirt and some equally black pants. In a school where poverty and funding were a large and always present concern, certain pleasures, such as multiple color shirts and pants to choose from, had quickly been Axed. That particular fact had never really bothered him though, and of today of all days the usual complaints did not even enter his mind. Today, it simply didn't matter! The only thing that mattered was his heart pounding with excitement and the knowledge that this was finally it.

The apartment that he slept in was small, but bursting through his door and speeding along the campus, it all seemed small. He felt detached from it as well, as if he had conquered the small school, which was an odd contrast to his usual feelings about the place. The school had been his home, the place that had excepted the young child that he had been when nobody else would, and taken him away from the orphanage. But it had been tough living, always poor, always challenging, and the fact that he had come to the school two years younger than his other classmates had not helped.

And yet, as he sprinted through the outdoor campus, raising an angry cloud of dust in his wake, it was triumph that coursed through his veins and gave him the uncharacteristic urge to leap for joy, even if the others saw. Especially if the others saw. They could disapprove of him, silently or loudly, and in just one month It wouldn't matter. His sprint gained force at the exciting implications.

The main auditorium zoomed into view all too soon, and he, the young man, slowed to a fast walk in front of its arching brown doorway. By the time he pushed through the impressive doors and entered the small, window lit room, his pace had fallen to nervous steps, and another change slowed him even further, until the young man was all but forcing his limbs to move. An iciness had fallen over him at the sight of the room, and at some point between crossing the doorway and entering the isle the excitement had dimmed, replaced instead with an overwhelming sense of anxiety. Reaching the front, he found himself all to eager to sit, and as he did so noticed the room around him with unusual clarity.

The room itself was small for its function, just like everything else the young man could picture of the campus. The auditorium was capable of seating at most sixty people, though only eight would be using it that morning. The front of the room was occupied by a small stage with brown floorboards and a single microphone placed in the very center of it. Very soon, the young man's teacher would walk onto the stage and explain the special curriculum that would dominate every graduating students schedule for the next month.

At least, he assumed it would be his teacher. Their had been no announcement on just exactly who would be the one talking, but their teacher was always responsible for anything to do with them. There were only five teachers after all, one for every grade, and something of a fabled principle who was never seen around campus, but was heard of as off fighting financial battles in the city. A small building near the entrance to the school remained the single solid evidence of the mans existence, but existent or not, the young man was confidant the principle would not be appearing that morning.

In fact, the auditorium remained empty but for the young man, who fell about to anxiously waiting for the others to arrive and the procession to begin.

The silence stretched on in the slow way that time passes when one is continually aware of it, and when the young man looked down at this wristwatch and discovered that only five minutes had passed frustration began to accompany his anxiety. If only the others would come and the thing could start, he could be finished with this terrible waiting! And yet another five minutes passed slowly and painstakingly before a loud creaking noise and a sudden burst of light down the isles announced the presence of another.

Turning his head quickly at the sound, the young man was then relieved at the sight of his old friend and companion, Latif. The other youth had halted upon entering the auditorium, and the young man could tell that his friend was having trouble adjusting to the difference in lighting between the bright and colorful outside world and the darkened room. Waving his arms to alert the squinting Latif, his friend appeared finally to have adapted to the new lighting as a return wave and a grin were sent the young man's way. Latif then sprang into action, moving rapidly down the isles and towards the front of the window lit auditorium, coming to a rest finally next to the young man.

"You're a bit early" he commented, turning to face the young man, who was smiling competitively now back at his friend.

"You too, you know.", he countered, and the two chuckled slightly as they settled back in their chairs and turned to the front. Their friendship had always contained a hint of rivalry, and companionable silence was traditionally never reached before a competitive comment or two. He always won, of course. Silence began to descend on the two, and the young man made to break it, knowing that fits of quietness were all to easy to get stuck in with Latif.

"So...any idea what they've got in store for us?" He asked softly, leaning his ear closer to Latif despite the absolute quite and stillness of the room.

"Oh...hours of torture probably," Latif whispered back, leaning conspiratorially towards the young man, "worse possible scenario, they make us learn something," he continued, playfully adding mock disgust to his words. His friend shook his head in response, the movement exaggerated.

" Ahh...we can only hope they have something more humane in mind. Like drowning" he added thoughtfully, and Latif began to stroke his chin.

"Or kicking us," He expanded, and the young man copied the chin stroking movement.

"With steel toed shoes?"

"Of course. Sharpened, too."

"That would be better."

The two grinned two themselves, chuckling softly in the quite of the Auditorium. The sound echoed undisturbed around them, the only noise piercing the stillness, but the two only had seconds to enjoy the uplifting sound before the door opening drew their attention. A second shaft of light appeared in between the roes of seats, and framed by it stood a young woman, who the two immediately recognized as their fellow classmate and student Alysa. The teen emerged slightly into the room and stayed there for a second, the door to the Auditorium creaking noisily shut behind her as she let her eyes adjust to the darkness.

Squinting around the room, it took a moment for Alysa to see the two young men sitting in the front row staring back at her. Like the two, Recognition was swift, and The young woman peered hopefully around the room for another moment but found herself alone but for the males. Striding reluctantly forward, the teen came to the front row and turned left, eventually seating herself in the corner farthest from Latif and his companion.

The young man sighed, and Latif wondered briefly if it was a sigh of relief or depression as his muscles relaxed. There had always been something of a gap between the two males and their six classmates, from the moment Latif had been accepted into the school. The young man had closed that gap in the first five minutes, providing the shaken and confused kid that he had been with a valuable friendship. He had never figured out why the others had shunned him as they did, whether it was the two year age difference, the strange and foreign name, or how emotionally devastated he was. The only thing that he had managed to figure out was why the young man to his left had not.

Because he was two years younger than the others, because he had a funny foreign name, and most importantly because he had needed a friend, too. And so their class had always been a group of two, with Latif and the young man on one side, and the other six children of their class on the other.

The subject was somewhat touchy for both of them, but after five years of constant togetherness Latif had learned to dislike his fellow classmates for their differences. The two of them had always been slightly silent and withdrawn, and preferred their humor to exaggerate that reclusiveness and to be ever present. The others were crude, sarcastic, and often would single in on one of their own in order to make jokes, mocking the individual close to tears.

Latif despised the lot of them, and if it had been himself sighing it would have unmistakably been a sigh of relief. His friend had more of a history with them than himself however, and it was not in his nature to hate as easily. Latif suspected that deep down, the young man had never quite given up on some sort of harmony between the eight of them, but had found their character differences simply too great of a barrier to scale.

But silence had returned to the room, and the young man began fiddling with his thumbs, completely unaware of his companions thoughts. Latif's silence on the other hand was perfectly apparent to him, and He turned himself away from the far off Alysa to stare at his long time friend. Snapped back to awareness by the young man's attention, Latif saw the beginnings of a question forming on his companions lips, which was thankfully interrupted by the sound of the door opening for a third time.

This time a procession of six poured down the temporarily lit isles, the sudden burst of a noise an unpleasant shift in the previously peaceful atmosphere. The first five, teenagers like Latif the young man and Alysa, entered the building quickly and took up seats beside their friend, animated conversation carrying with them as they walked and gaining Alysa's voice as they sat beside her. The six figure through the door entered slowly.

The man was adorned by a long black cape, the traditional black of everything worn in the school, seen also in the mans black pants and black, long sleeved shirt. To complete the image, black, dust covered shoes had been fitted over the mans rather large feet, and shoulder length black hair drooped down over the mans face. The Man was the classes teacher, Mr. Gershom, and had been so every day for the last five years.

The young man new both why Mr. Gershom moved with a frustrating slow limp and why the man never cut his hair short. Mr. Gershom had been a Pokemon trainer himself for many years, only because he had chosen foolishly to continue as one even after it had become apparent he held no particular talent for the career. Mishap after mishap had scarred and damaged Mr. Gershom's body, but the man had managed to overcome his lack of talent and develop something of a prestigious career.

Because of it, when the man had reached fifty and been forced to quit Pokemon training, his reputation had earned him what no other facility could offer an uneducated, scarred, and lame old man; work. The limp was the result of a Pokemon wound. The long hair was meant to hide the scars on his face.

Limping his way onto the stage, Mr. Gershom from there moved slowly to the mike at the center, every eye in the room focused on his lumbering gait. When at last Mr. Gershom was before the mike, he removed it from it's stand and flipped a switch at the bottom. A low key screeching sound jumped from the sound speakers around the room, and Mr. Gershom tapped the mike twice to make sure the ancient device was still working. The enhanced tapping sound that boomed from the loud speakers attested that it was, and Mr. Gershom cleared his throat before bringing the mike up to his lips and beginning.

"Huh-hem. Good morning," a dull good morning echoed back from the crowd, and Mr. Gershom chuckled slightly , "That all the enthusiasm you can muster for your last month of school? I thought you all hated this place?" He commented teasingly into the mike, and this time a much more enthusiastic response rolled back from the crowd, one man standing up and shouting " YEAH! It sucks here!", all of which drew a couple more chuckles from Mr. Gershom.

"Thats right, your happy to be leaving. Gonna get yourselves screwed over by the world!" Mr. Gershom chuckled much harder at his own joke, and The young man and Latif shared a glance. There was something of a controversy over whether or not their old teacher was likable, and the negative argument was mostly comprised of the fact that he seemed very confidant in the classes collective and imminent death. Whats more, Mr. Gershom laughed shamelessly whenever he brought up the subject, apparently very amused by the whole idea. He was otherwise a very informative, very fascinating man that had made learning an interesting experience for the entire class, but it was hard to get close to a man that seemed to relish in your own demise.

The laughing eventually died out, and Mr. Gershom cleared his throat again before returning to topic.

"Huh-hem. Well, be that as it may, we're still gonna be giving you your trainers license at the end of this month. That is, we will be giving you your trainers license at the end of this month if you survive. Heh heh heh. Huh-hem." Another wry glance at each other at their teachers antics, but the young man and Latif returned their attention to the man just as quick, curious.

"Well, as you all know, they don't let us just send you out into the world as Pokemon trainers. Its tough out there, and we've only got so many of you. In order for you to gain your license, you have to prove yourselves," The young man nodded to himself. Thats what they'd been doing for the past five years after all, building up their knowledge, qualifying themselves for the tasks ahead. But what did they have to do now?

"Well, The traditional way to test someones abilities is to see them perform in action," Mr. Gershom paused, and was staring about the room now with a particularly humorous glint in his eyes that the young man and Latif could only interpret as Ominous.

"Well..." he continued slowly, dragging his eyes once more over the students, "That's the best way to test Young Pokemon trainers as yourselves too, as it turns out. Heh heh heh." Mr. Gershom chuckled dryly to himself once more, and every student in the room froze. The young man felt his mind go blank with the slow onslaught of terror, and felt even more acutely every hair on his body raising as a cold sweat broke over him. What did that mean? Mr. Gershom continued.

" Heh heh heh. Huh-hem. Well, don't worry, to much. Like I said, theres only eight of you going out there this year, and we don't particularly want any of you to die," The young man felt this statement poorly reflected by the amusement on Mr. Gershom's face. "So we've made things easy for you, ya' lucky ducks. Every student will be given three weeks to research what type of Pokemon you think would best qualify as a starter. You can choose one for whatever reason you might have, but were gonna test you for a good one after the three weeks are up, and the criteria you should be choosing it on if you want to pass is personality harmony. No, don't worry, ill explain what I mean by that.

"We want all of you to choose a first Pokemon that you can handle, plain and simple, 'cause your relationship with this one will define every relationship with every Pokemon thereafter. Pokemon are SMART. They can communicate just fine, and if that first Pokemon of yours tells your second that you can't handle him, than that's it. You'll never have the respect of another Pokemon until you get the first one under wraps. So we need you to understand what your capable of. Are you a patient guy? Well, maybe you can handle a Gyarados then, but if you know that your not, don't make a stupid decision like trying one of those out for a starter. They're known for savagely attacking incapable trainers and making us wait an entire digestive cycle to get the body back. Heh heh he. Huh-hem"

"So, like I said, were gonna test you on your decision, and were gonna expect well thought out answers. Anything short of that, and were gonna mill you around this place for another year as a janitor, and hopefully your smarter next time. But if you pass..." Mr. Gershom pause for a moment, and though the young man knew that what was gonna be said next would not be pleasant, Mr. Gershom didn't laugh. He simply stared at the students from behind his black hair for a moment, and then continued.

"But if you pass...than you get the chance to become the Pokemon trainer you've been trying to be for the past five years. The academy will give you one poke ball each, and you will all be lent the use of a terrain capable helicopter. You will then direct the helicopter to any point in Tohoku, where you will have a week to capture your starter. The helicopter will drop you off in the wilderness, and leave you there with a small remote that has a single button on it. The button will send out a signal that calls back the Helicopter. Press it once you have obtained your Pokemon, and the Helicopter will pick you up, and if at the end of the week you still don't have your starter, than you fail and must press it anyways in order to go home."

Mr. Gershom stopped and stared around the class for a third time. The young man sat slumped in his seat, an overwhelming shock just barely managing to hold back his other emotion, fear. Following his teachers gaze, He noticed that Latif had overcome his shock and was visibly shaking with terror, while the other students were all respectively at some point in between. One of them was stuttering unintelligibly.

As the young man observed, the student managed to force down the stuttering and raise his hand tentatively into the air. Mr. Gershom, in the midst of closely studying the students horrified expressions for his own amusement, immediately noticed the hand and gestured for the student to speak.

"Si...sir, what if we misplace the remote somehow, or... its faulty, or breaks. How do we come into contact with the helicopter then?" he said, and the young man could tell from where he sat how difficult the speaker was finding it just to operate his lips. Mr. Gershom stared from under his long brows at the student for a moment, his expression guarded, until moments later a huge grin spread across his face. The student who had spoken flinched harshly back into his seat, and the young man felt his and every other students in the rooms blood run cold.

"You there...I cant see you well in the dark, who's that? Ra'uf?" Mr. Gershom asked, his grin losing some of its force, and the speaker relaxed enough to stutter a response, as the the horrible smile had been aimed at him.

"N...no, sir, I'm Tom. Ra'uf's sitting over there," Tom said, his hand raising hesitantly from his side to point across the room so that the young man suddenly felt every eye in the Auditorium turned temporarily to him. Mr. Gershom leaned forward slightly to gain a better look, then leaned back with an affirming grunt.

"Tom, then, " he said, and class wide attention returned to Mr. Gershom, who had taken his eyes off of him. Ra'uf felt the relief of the attention shift like a heavy block of ice leaving his chest.

Mr. Gershom finished his sweep of the room, and the usual Humorous glint returned to his expression. He continued slowly, savoring the students response. " ...Whether or not you have died, we will consider you dead if you have not pressed the button by the end of that week. Make sure you don't lose or damage the remote, because that's the end for you then, too." Mr Gershom paused a final time to watch the class shudder.

"Heh heh heh. Huh-hem."


	2. Self discovery

Authors note: Writing is tough! The single person who was kind enough to review to me last chapter offered to beta for me ( or proofread, at least) and i have sense suffered what seems hours of correcting my own work because i said no. Still, i really should be doing it myself, and i can't get over the desire to have every last word of my own first story have been created, corrected, and or omitted by me and me alone. So, after hours of tedious correcting (Grammar! RARG!) i present the second chapter of the Pokonomist. Please enjoy the read, and i only hope that a second among you finds it in his or her self to leave a small bundle of criticism and comment after you are finished.

* * *

The class filed from the Auditorium, and in the warm sun noticed that they were all very, very cold. Many of them were shivering or shaking slightly, and Ra'uf could feel the layer of sweat that had broken out during the speech. Capture their starter on their own, after a week in the wilderness? The idea was crazy! The wilderness harbored thousands upon thousands of vicious, feral Pokemon that attacked everything in sight. Ever year reports another however many dead by Pokemon attacks, and they were going to be forced to spend a week alone, seeking out one? Insane! No wonder Mr. Gershom had always been so confidant they were all going to die. He'd known this was coming!

Ra'uf then noticed that all of the students were paused outside of the doorway, and that the others were beginning to talk. Ra'uf felt himself go even colder inside as the others began complaining as a group, irrationally blaming everything and anything, including Mr. Gershom, but doing it together. He felt the sudden urge to leave, as he always did, to get far enough away that the six other students could be neither seen nor heard.

His feet obeyed the urge, and he soon found himself walking back the way he had sprinted so enthusiastically that morning at a slow and rhythmic pace. Latif, noticing his friends retreat, managed to bring his mind out of its unhappy stupor and give chase.

The two walked around their teachers room, a building with a low ceiling and long, flat wooden walls. Passing over the upper half of the building, Ra'uf's feet carried him aimlessly towards the dorm rooms, and in minutes he had passed station number four and was already near his own class's complex, station number five. The stations, each slightly larger than the last, contained four buildings that formed a square and that were each vital to the everyday needs of the students. The building far to the right, which the young man now slipped passed, contained the bathrooms.

The building parallel to it contained the Kitchen, which was never locked but left the students dependent on themselves for cooking and cleaning. The pantries and refrigerator were filled to the brim with all the necessities of healthy living, and after their third year had began holding certain pleasure foods like snacks and sodas in small quantities, all of which were replenished monthly.

Passing the long lounge area in between the two dormitories, which contained a small dirt field with some gym props and a comfortably shaded off siting area, He entered his own room, the third door down along the building. Latif slipped numbly in after him.

Ra'uf finally settled on the tip of his bed, which lay in the far right corner of his room. The room itself looked exactly how every other room in the entire school looked; a slightly elevated bed on the far right, a large desk at the front for working as well as the rooms single window, which was currently letting in slithers of light around closed blinds, and two comfortable but worn chairs with a small table between them that Ra'uf mostly used during meal times or when reading.

Latif settled down in the desk chair, and sat there for several minutes with the sun warming his back. Ra'uf made no move to communicate at first, too lost in his own thoughts, but after a couple minutes had gone by he noticed that Latif seemed to be reacting worse to the news than himself. His old friends fists had tightened at their spot on his lap, and his head was slumped forward so that Latif's eyes stared blankly at the floor. His breathing was also somewhat disturbed, the breaths coming in short and swift, and Ra'uf began to fear that his friend would pass into hyperventilation.

Tearing his eyes off of his friend and lifting them to the sealing, the young man sighed audibly and fell back onto his bed, the movement and noise distracting Latif. "You know...I think I'd rather they gather up all of the teachers and kick us with steal plated shoes that have functioning power drills coming off the toe than this," He commented dryly, and Latif laughed, his fist unclenching.

"Well," He said, equally dryly, "Mercy never was their strong point. That's why they hired Mr. Gershom. He actually enjoys it," Latif said, cracking a smile at Ra'uf, who bounced back into a sitting position, grinning in return.

"That explains it, eh? Always thought it was sympathy and desperation," He replied, the humor uplifting his spirits and easing away the unpleasant thoughts of what was to come. Latif felt this as well, and the two of them took a moment to simply laugh, the terror draining from them.

Ra'uf's laughter died out, and his mind went suddenly back to that morning, and what this next month was going to hold in store for him. Sighing again, his figure drooped forward slightly and his tone turned somber.

"One poke ball... That's not a guaranteed single chance, but it's pretty close. Pokemon always go for the Poke ball's after a failed capture. And a week in the wild! We're not exactly sitting ducks after five years of this place, but I'd never imagined I would be spending time in the wild without a Pokemon for protection. This whole thing...it's risky, I wasn't expecting it," Ra'uf said, and Latif nodded in agreement, exhaling sharply.

"Yeah...were gonna have to be careful. Still," he said, and now his eyes came off the floor and his voice gained some energy to it, " This is what we've been preparing to do for years, and every other Pokemon trainer out there has gone through the same thing. We'll be fine! What we should be worried about his picking a starter. What Pokemon can you think of that are powerful, but wont eat us if we mess up the capture?" Latif asked, grinning crookedly at his friend, and Ra'uf shrugged slightly.

"well...It's a given that were not going after any evolved Pokemon," He said, and Latif nodded in agreement.

"Which means that were left with the base evolution forms, and the couple of none evolving Pokemon that aren't particularly threatening. Want a Shuckle?" The young man joked, relaxing now that he had something to think about. Latif, imagining the strange reptilian bug and it's deformed shell, shook his head.

"God no! What kind of starter would that be? Those things have all the offense capabilities of a toddler" Latif said, his mind revolving around the subject. "What would be best is a Pokemon like Charmander, or Starly. Something that we can capture easily cause its week, but train up strong once we've got it. But...it's not really about preference. We need to find something compatible with ourselves if we want to pass the first test." He said, his voice trailing off into thought.

What Pokemon was that? Ra'uf thought in silence with his friend for a moment, mulling it over. In order to pick a Pokemon that matched his own strengths and weakness', the first thing He would want to do is form some understanding of what those limits were. And then what? Cross reference himself with every Pokemon in existence? It looked like it, and the young man suddenly foresaw hours and hours of grueling research ahead.

Looking over to the clock on his desk, Ra'uf noticed that it was now eight o clock. He had been up for two hours and had yet to complete a single ounce of work. Ra'uf groaned out loud, causing Latif to glance at his friend curiously. "What?" He asked, and Ra'uf turned to face him with a pained expression. "It just occurred to me that this is going to be nothing but endless research," He explained, and Latif stared blankly ahead in thought for a moment before groaning himself, rubbing his forehead wearily.

"Well," He said tiredly, " We'd best get started, then."

_--_

_- later that day_

Ra'uf heaved another book off of the small library in the corner of his room and dropped it on the table in the sitting area. The table was and had been covered with such books for hours, and the new one displaced one that Ra'uf had worked through after lunch, the ancient text sliding noisily off the table and thumping shut on the floor. Ignoring the fallen book, Ra'uf groaned and sat down in one of the comfy chairs and leaned back, rubbing his eyes.

Ra'uf's mind felt like over fine mush, and just thinking was begging to become a painful activity. Yet, he had only just finished his dinner, and another four hours of studying needed to be gained before he could call it a night. Exhaling heavily, the young man leaned drowsily forward in his chair and maneuvered his laptop off of the overfilling table and unto the floor.

Paper had become something of a precious commodity, the cutting of trees an activity made extremely difficult by the interference of Pokemon. An average stack of paper cost nearly as much the computer had, and the school, recognizing that computers serve hundreds of other needs via the Internet as well as fulfilling the role of paper, had purchased a single laptop for every student in the school. That had been years ago, however, and the Laptop that the he now used was archaic compared to the computers of the day.

Opening to the first page of the book that he had just fetched, Ra'uf began skimming through the contents. The book itself was titled "_The Flame Almanac" _and contained tons of very interesting and detailed facts on the fire Pokemon of the Region. The world, as far as Ra'uf knew. He had never heard of another region outside of his own Tohoku, but that could have just been a result of his poor education rather than there not actually being one.

Turning to his computer, the young man leaned down and typed "Fire types" as that pages heading, and dropped down several spaces to begin typing. He had already made it through fourteen of the total seventeen types of Pokemon, and was planning to go into more detailed research on the individual Pokemon once he had finished.

Ra'uf found that typing on his currently ground level computer was an especially difficult process, made even more so by the thick volume resting on his lap. The words formed slowly, whilst all the while "_The Flame Almanac_" forced the air out of his lungs and dug into his chest. Mr. Gershom had commented, once, that laziness often wound up taking more effort than just going ahead and doing something, but Ra'uf stubbornly refused to shift his books around for the hundredth time that evening just to make room for the computer.

After painstaking and unnecessary effort, Ra'uf finished typing and leaned back in his chair, relieving his lungs and chest from their previously uncomfortable position. The urge to simply pick up and toss the ancient volume filled Ra'uf, and if the darned book had cost anything less than the fortune it did it may have found itself flying across the room. Instead, he shifted the heavy book onto a more comfortable spot on his lap and began reading.

The book spent hundreds of chapters detailing the needs of the individual fire Pokemon, and Ra'uf found it extremely difficult to sort through all of the irrelevant information and stumble upon anything pertaining to the nature of Fire Pokemon. The information was there, but hidden in frustratingly small portions in the midst of other subjects, and drawing it all together took the better part of an hour. Everything he'd been able to find was noted and typed onto the computer, and Ra'uf decided enough was enough after filling out a page on the troublesome type.

Leaning satisfactorily back into the comfortable chair, Ra'uf felt like whatever bits of his brain had been forcing themselves to function had withered out and died in the past hour. It would have been much better if he could have finished the research on the generic types and their personalities that evening, but he recognized the point at which working became a waste of time and effort. He'd hit the wall for that night, and tomorrow would be another opportunity to spend countless hours on his quest to pick a starter.

"_What kind of person am I?"_

The thought came unbidden, and Ra'uf was left stunned by it, just as he had every other time the question had suddenly penetrated his thoughts. He had decided, when he was first beginning his researcher, that he would first define what Pokemon there were to choose from and then see how he matched up to those choices. He had hoped to leave defining himself for later, but the question had been an ever present distraction.

In many ways, it was the question he should actually have spent the entire day solving, as even though Pokemon of a certain type hold certain attributes in common, there were so few Pokemon of just one type and such a broad spectrum of Pokemon personalities that to try and form a generic view of a type was a waste of time. The fire type Pokemon Torkaol, for example, was the exact same type as the fire type Pokemon Magmar, but was a generally placid Pokemon whereas Magmar were infamous for their ability to spend months pursuing an aggressive revenge. The research that Ra'uf had spent his entire day amounting was just the Magmar and Torkaol case repeated over and over again with different Pokemon and types.

But who was he? What were his own limits, his own strengths, the character flaws and attributes that defined him and would guide him in his decision? The question was much harder to answer than the hours of research Ra'uf had committed to. He had never asked himself a question like that before, never tried to form an unbiased and professional measure of the person he was. The entire ordeal seemed impossible, and the truth was that he was procrastinating on the subject, delaying answering the question that was half the issue in the important task ahead.

There was no doubt that the question was just as important as the hours of research into Pokemon personalities. Ra'uf was had no illusions on the importance of the question. But _who was he?_

Ra'uf sighed, rubbing his temples in an attempt to bring some pleasant feeling to his pained skull. Heaving himself off of his comfortable chair, he began his nighttime ritual, the thoughts still flowing chaotically and painfully through his mind. Leaving his workstation as it was, an embarrassing mess of priceless books in precarious and undignified states unfitting of their value, Ra'uf gathered some night clothing and exited his room, walking across the dirt area in the middle of his complex to the Bathroom buildings.

The hot day had transformed dramatically into a freezing night with only a hazy layer of moonlight that barely illuminated the complex. And yet, seated in the middle of the complex sat the other six students, all chatting animatedly with each other in apparent obliviousness to the temperature and poor lighting. Ra'uf felt the usual pang in his chest, calling him to attempt and join the group despite assured rejection, and distracted himself by wondering what kind of work the others could possibly be doing outside and at night. Straining his ears, Ra'uf paused for a second before the bathroom building to listen in on the others.

"...Alright! So Ben is obviously very patient, as seen in his stubborn refusal to give up on Alysa despite her repeatedly rejecting him. He's also something of a pervert jack ass, but I don't think that has anything to do with Pokemon or starters." One of the men was saying, to which the targeted Ben was loudly protesting and the others laughing.

"Hell, Ben's a pervert, sure, but he's still better than Alysa. She actually enjoys refusing him over and over again! Takes some sort of sick pleasure in pretending she's desirable! She should get a Flaffy – only other creature that enjoys looking at themselves as much as she does!"

"HAH! And your any better? Your such a snob, Marissa! I don't know how anything short of a slowpoke will have the patience to deal with you!"

"Heh, that's true, Marissa!

"Shut up, Ben! Your still a pervert, remember?!"

Ra'uf had heard enough. Opening the door and entering his personal bathroom, he turned and violently shut the door, locking it for no particular reason but taking comfort in that it assured his privacy. The others had, after all, played tricks on him in the shower from time to time, and tonight he was not in the mood for practical jokes.

The bathroom was good sized and comfortable, sporting a large tub, a long counter with a sink in the middle, and a mirror that ran along the entire left side of the room. The toilets were kept in an additional room that branched off from the main part of the bathroom, and Ra'uf dropped himself heavily onto the only other seat in the room, a tiny chair. He had managed to procure the seat earlier that year, the owner all to happy to be rid of the thing, which had long ago began rotting with age.

The entire room was immaculately kept by Ra'uf, and the chair had been adorned with a paper covering that hid the rotting wood beneath and let it fit in comfortably with its surroundings. That the room was as clean as it was had been the result of Ra'uf's own hard work, and simply sitting in it induced a feeling of pride in him that made it an extremely relaxing first and final stop of the day, and in that moment helped to calm Ra'uf's aching mind and chest.

It was always that way with the others, the desire to be amongst them clashing with his own repulsion towards them. Whenever he even considered coming over and saying hey, he ended up as he was now – uncomfortably tormented by his equally strong disgust and yearning. To be with them was agony, and to be away from them was another agony in itself. Without Latif, he would have gone mad years ago from loneliness, or simply have given in and become one of their foul members.

Groaning again, Ra'uf ran his hands through his hair and over his face, shaking away all thoughts of starters and the others. He had had a long day, and it was time to relax, not work himself up over bygone issues that could not be helped. He had made his decision long ago, and had chosen to be a person that he didn't regret looking at in a mirror at the cost of heavy loneliness and isolation.

Heaving his exhausted body off of the chair with a grunt, Ra'uf turned the faucet in the tub and plugged the drain, and hot water spilled down to start filling the tub. Moving to the sink, Ra'uf slathered his least foul toothbrush with a coating of baking soda and began to brush, the perfunctory task helping to distract him from his thoughts.

The sound of the the fast running water from the tub and sink began to further calm him, and his mind began to simply turn off, his senses overwhelming his consciousness. The floor beneath his bare feet was uncomfortably icy, the windows letting in a constant stream of cold air that was beginning to be fought back by the steam rising from the tub. Spitting out the toothpaste and rinsing his mouth, Ra'uf turned turned off both the sink and tub then stripped down, relaxing his strained muscles into the pleasantly hot water that had collected while he was brushing.

The back of the Tub was angled, and Ra'uf leaned back until he was comfortably submersed in the hot water. The feeling of laying there after a stressful day was pure bliss, and Ra'uf found it suddenly easy to forget his days troubles and block out the painful thoughts. The silence and feeling stretched on, undisturbed, a sense of time altogether absent from the experience.

...

_..._

_..._

_Who am I?_

Ra'uf started slightly, and his contentedness fell tragically apart around him at the thought which had managed to sneak up on him for the dozenth time that day. The silent lull that had moments before been pure pleasure began to annoy him, and he noticed for the first time that the water was beginning to cool. Thought wormed its unwelcome way back into his mind, and a sudden restlessness delivered the final blow to the mood, leaving it irrevocably shattered. Sitting up in the water, Ra'uf sighed, and for the first time addressed the question which had been nagging him all day.

Who was he? Looking around the bathroom, Ra'uf noticed the areas that he had patched over and the shining cleanliness of the whole room. Perhaps he was a bit of a prude, than, but the room also reflected self motivation and willingness to work extra. And his relationship with the others...he was obviously very stubborn, very firm in his own beliefs, or he would never have had problems conforming to the others or have given up years ago and joined their bickering ranks.

And the way that he was with Latif, the qualities that the two shared that made their relationship so easy...Silence, and appreciation for the smaller, more simple things around them. Both of them could lose themselves just staring at something, or relaxing in a tub of water, as he had just been. What exactly did that say about him?

Well, appreciation for detail, but at the same time a very real danger of losing his head in the clouds. He tended to never be fully present in a situation, often distracted by his own thoughts to such a degree he could lose himself just walking from his room to the kitchen. "What else?" his mind asked, and Ra'uf maneuvered himself to a complete sitting position now, unconsciously starting to fiddle with his thumbs. _What else_?

The thought pressed forcefully at his mind, pressure rebuilding in his skull as his overexerted brain began to swim with new effort. Moments later, an innovative thought brought relief and a feeling of exhilaration as the problematic question began to crumble.

Cooking. Strange as it sounded, Ra'uf felt there existed a connection between his cooking habits and his personality. Every morning meant eggs, which meant that he had no problem with repetitious things like the unique training that certain Pokemon required. Lunch time was usually something junky or simple, like a sandwich, which meant...that he was not overly picky?

Ra'uf decided to stick with that, finding it to difficult to extract further profound symbolism from chips and soda. Dinner was usually something hearty, warm, and filling, such as pasta or soup. Both of which took a good hour to prepare and cook to perfection, a task that required a certain level of patience and exactness. According to his meal plan, he was of the type that could handle bland repetition, was not particularly picky, and was perfectly capable of patiently fulfilling an exact and difficult task.

Ra'uf felt as if a world of epiphanies had suddenly been opened to him, and realized that what he desperately required at that moment was something to write with. Wonderful revelations were simply flowing from his brain, and here he was, stuck naked in a tub some thirty yards from his laptop!

Leaping from the tub, Ra'uf stumbled on the wet surface and vaulted onto the cold floor, immediately picking himself up without a second thought to his now throbbing knee and elbows. He took pain well! Another revelation, and he would forget it in seconds if he didn't act! Yanking the plug from the bathtub, Ra'uf turned and stared at the pile of clothing bunched messily on the counter. Buttons...zippers...these things stared up at Ra'uf and screamed of minutes wasted fumbling away at them. Staring around the room, he spotted a towel and lunged for the item, wrapping it around his waist in a fraction of the time it would have taken to put on all of the clothing.

Ra'uf thrust the door out of his way, emerging with only the towel wrapped around his form and sprinting across the complex, one hand straining to keep the article from flying off. The sound of the door slamming against the wall echoed noisily through the grounds, causing the others to look up in alarm and then shock. It was hard to tell in the dim lighting, but it seemed to them that a fully naked Ra'uf was streaking across the grounds, and the entire group watched in stunned fascination as he reached the dorm building and began fiddling with the door using his one free hand.

One of the girls was so overwhelmed from the shock that she screamed, and Ra'uf jumped violently, his hand frozen on the door knob. Turning to face the sitting area, he was utterly horrified to find every student staring directly at his barely dressed form, and began desperately wringing his door knob, which finally relented. The door to his room flew open, and Ra'uf darted inside, leaving his six classmates to stare in wonder at his doorway.

--

Latif sighed and flipped through another page in the book before him. The truth of the matter was that he knew exactly what Pokemon would serve best as his starter, and had known so for years. He had heard that Pokemon trainers got the opportunity to pick their own starters, and had always hoped that was true. The only real task left for him was to develop a well thought out reason for his choice in Pokemon, and then form a capture plan.

His progress in those areas had been going well, as the evening had been silent but for the occasional outbursts of chatter from the others. When a loud bang echoed from the bathroom areas, followed moments later by a girl shrieking, the dramatic change in atmosphere sent Latif jumping from his chair, assumptions of the worst streaming through his mind as he opened his blinds just enough to peer through.

What he saw instead of an armed intruder was the fleeing form of his best and only friend, clad only in a thin towel and shocking the others out of their wits. Seconds later,Ra'uf retreated into the safety of his room, leaving his entire class to stare at the spot he had just stood in all indecency. For a second, Latif himself stood stunned, but the second passed quickly, and he let the blinds fall back into place over his window.

Sitting back at his desk, Latif stared blankly down at his book for a moment, before a fit of weak chuckles animated his form. Moments later the chuckling transformed into an all out laughter that he found it difficult to breathe through the intensity of . The wheeled chair on which he was sitting began to tilt dangerously, and moments later deposited the hysterical Latif unto the floor. What a wonderfully ridiculous friend he had!

-- --

Ra'uf slammed the door shut behind him and lept to his desk, there throwing the blinds over his window. His breathing came in heavy gasps, and for a moment he stood still and let the horror of what had just transpired run through him. Then, laughter broke out around his heavy breathing, and Ra'uf sat down in his desk chair, reflecting upon the irony of the moment. Just that morning he had been overjoyed at the thought that nothing he did to embarrass himself infront of the others would matter by the end of that month, and now, much later that evening, he had had the most embarrassing experience of all his years.

And yet, it was still true, what he had thought to himself that morning, and so instead of blanching in shame he found himself laughing. There was something freeing in the laughter, and his mind cleared enough to remember what had sent him flying from the bathroom.

A clear and firm confidence began flowing through Ra'ufs body with the return of purpose, and he opened his laptop with a sense of capability that was invigorating. Opening a new page on his word document, Ra'uf began to write, heading the Page "Who I am". All of the insightful thoughts that he had produced in the last couple of minutes flowed rapidly into being. The page held no particular order, the details listed one after another with no connection to the former or later insight, and as the writing gained length Ra'uf began to understand what had made the question seem so difficult.

He had been trying to explain himself, To examine every aspect of his character in one paragraph with everything linked clearly and concisely. Trying to understand himself all at once had been too much, but as he did it now everything fell clearly into place on the documents before him. He was simply observing, noting, looking at his own actions and deciphering them piece by piece before simply listing them. Organization could come later, and comprehension finally, but the progression was instant and heartening.

Thirty minutes passed before Ra'uf managed to finish a single page, Which satisfied him, considering it was the same length of all of the type observations he'd written that day. His observations covered everything from the way he walked to the way he talked, and the personality assessments were accurate and varied because of it. Looking over the entire page, Ra'uf then began to collect the personality assessments next to each observation and combine them into a single, jumbled paragraph. Filtering the paragraph came next, and Ra'uf deleted all of the repeated information and combined the facts until the paragraph became a defined description of himself.

Leaning back in his chair, Ra'uf yawned in satisfaction and rubbed his eyes. The clock now read that it was ten P.M, an hour later than Ra'uf usually was up, and the only thing that kept him from falling asleep at his chair was the adrenaline still pulsing through him. Now that he was officially finished with the self assessment, the rush began to fade and a mist of drowsiness fell over him. Yawning loudly for a second time, Ra'uf attempted to proofread his final product again but lost the words as he read them, to exhausted to make sense of the document.

Realizing he was finished for the night, Ra'uf grinned to himself and stretched, heaving his tired body off of the chair. A sort of happy contentment and a warm feeling of accomplishment accompanied him on the short walk to his bed, and Ra'uf drifted to sleep in seconds, his computer displaying the days true accomplishment and lighting up the room with it's pale glow.

--

The loud chirping of Ra'ufs most annoying and loud alarm clock did nothing to stir him the next morning, and any disturbing light that might of come to the rescue was blocked by the closed shades. The teen woke up at eight o clock that morning, a full two hours later than the norm, and upon realizing this catapulted himself straight to work in order to make up for the lost time.

A quick breakfast of eggs and toast settled his stomach, and the changing process remained half complete by the time Ra'uf finally hit the books. It was unusual for him to wear anything consecutively, but his night clothing was perfectly reusable, and the realization that preparing for the day was useless when the day was going to be spent inside had kept him in his pajamas.

Research was again the focus of Ra'uf's work, but this time he had a clear picture of what he was looking for and no annoying, unanswered questions to obstruct him. The day went by quickly and uneventfully as Ra'uf directly compared himself to every Pokemon in existence, one at a time. Though at first glance the research seemed straightforward, finding information on the Pokemon's personality was not enough. Ra'uf also had to measure the Pokemon's needs and his own ability to meet those needs, and not only in a personal way.

Most water Pokemon had been instantly crossed off because they required a water habitat to live, and as an inexperienced traveler restricting himself to the waterways would be a sure way to never get his career off the ground. Convoys almost always passed near enough to water, but direct threats were from land Pokemon fought on a dry setting, as to move along the shoreline was to risk attack from some of the more far reaching water types. He also had to evaluate the evolutionary forms of the Pokemon, which resulted in many Pokemon such as Magickarp, who were perfectly manageable in their base forms but raging monsters once evolved, to be crossed off very quickly.

The only reprieve from his work came in the brief trips to the kitchen for meals, at which time he enjoyed the entirely new experience of the others shuffling awkwardly and reducing themselves to silence in his presence. Ra'uf had gotten over his embarrassment very quickly, but the rest of them seemed unable to look at him in the same way, and the result was some of the most enjoyably silent cooking sessions of his life.

Meals were eaten inside his room, however, as he sensed the change would only last until they were comfortable with his presence again, and he had no desire to reach that point quicker by hanging around. Occasionally, Ra'uf would knock on Latif's door and summon his good friend jogging for an hour in order to keep up their health, but the rest of the day was entirely devoted to study.

In that manner, the first two weeks passed, and Ra'uf managed to work through about four hundred and sixty of the total four hundred and ninety Pokemon species native to the Tohoku region. The remaining Pokemon were briefly skimmed over and crossed off, and on the second day of that week Ra'uf found himself in something of a stalemate among several of his final choices; the ghost Pokemon Misdreavus, the Fighting type Hitmontop, the grass type Chickorita, and the normal slash Psychic type Giraferig.

Frowning, Ra'uf sat back in his chair and looked over his choices for a second time, scrolling down his computer to browse through each page dedicated to one of his final choices. The grass type Chickorita had the advantage of being a very sturdy Pokemon that learned a number of self recovery moves and could take quite a hit, but had the disadvantage of being a plain grass type Pokemon and therefore weak to five common types. The capture of the Pokemon would also be somewhat difficult, as Chickorita were one of the Pokemon that would not leave the protection of their mother until evolved, and Ra'uf doubted his abilities to maneuver around a full grown Meganium.

Personality wise, the Pokemon was renowned for being gentle, helpful, and extremely obedient so long as it received the proper amount of care. Ra'uf had no doubt that the Pokemon would flourish under his training, and the personality mesh of the easy going Chickorita and Ra'uf meant that raising the Pokemon was well within his abilities. The problems were the typing, the capture, and the fact that Chickorita were very unfocused Pokemon that would be difficult to have as the singular Pokemon he was to train constantly until he earned enough for a second Poke ball. As a starter, the Pokemon was a great personality mesh and alright stats wise, but an otherwise poor choice.

The second page down covered the Fighting type Hitmontop. Hitmontop was in many ways the polar opposite of his problems with Chickorita, being an incredibly driven Pokemon that loved both training and fighting and was weak to only a couple of rare types. In terms of Personality, the Pokemon was exceptionally good humored, but required constant attention and was so single minded on self improvement that anything but training would be difficult with it. The Pokemon was also fairly aggressive and withdrawn, with the ability to hold a vicious grudge for years should a single mistake be made and quick to condemn trainers that it felt to be weak.

As a starter, the Pokemon had the benefit of being of an exclusive typing with many advantages as well as a very powerful and easy to train Pokemon and having certain personality quirks that Ra'uf thought he could live with. The problem with the Pokemon was that they were impatient learners, and as a beginning Pokemon trainer mistakes would be much more common then his successes, meaning that he would in all likelihood quickly lose his Pokemon's respect and therefore botch his entire career. It was as Mr. Gershom said – Pokemon were smart, and they communicated with one another, which meant to lose the respect of his first would be to lose the respect of every other Pokemon thereafter.

The final negative aspect of Hitmontop as well as the only aspect it held in common with Chickorita was that the Pokemon would be terribly difficult to catch. The other thing to consider about Hitmontop was that it's newly hatched form was the pre-evolved Tyrogue, and though they were considerably easier to deal with and catch then their evolution, they were also an extremely weak Pokemon. In addition, there was no guaranteeing a Tyrogue would evolve into the one of its three evolutions that Ra'uf wanted.

His third consideration was the Giraffe Pokemon, Giraferig, whose advantages lay almost entirely in its stats. The Pokemon had a wonderful typing that left it weak to only the bug and dark type as well as being of the rare and powerful psychic type itself. Its offensive stats were both above average, and its defensive stats, while admittedly poor, were instantly compensated by a unique move that the Pokemon learned at a very young age. Guard swap did exactly as its name implied, swapping the poor defenses of Giraferig with those of its opponents, which was a move that could be devastating against defensively based Pokemon such as Steelix, Chansey, and Shuckle.

The main turnoff with Giraferig was the fact that the Pokemon learned a very small variety of moves that would only ever gain type bonuses against several other rare types that Ra'uf was unlikely to encounter. The route that led from his schools town to the next was also swarming with bug types, which meant Girafarig would start off as an almost entirely ineffective Pokemon, something that would be devastating to Giraferig's self esteem and faith in its trainer.

Personality wise, the Pokemon functioned as most herd Pokemon do, revolving around the alpha but mostly reclusive otherwise. The system that Pokemon trainers were taught to use worked heavily off of a Pokemon's instincts towards it's alpha, but...

Ra'ufs frown deepened, and he pushed the thought from his mind. How he felt about the training of Pokemon wouldn't matter until he was actually out there, training them. Perhaps he was right about Pokemon and their natures, and his secret ambition to train them in a way that would turn the world against him would be effective. Or perhaps he would quickly find that he had been wrong all along, and quickly revert to the prescribed training methods and carry out the rest of the career pretending to all the world as if he had never done differently. But he seriously hoped not, and to the root of his being believed that that would not be the case.

One way or another, it wouldn't matter until he had captured his starter and ruined Mr. Gershom's day by surviving. Ra'uf dragged his mind off of the subject and scrolled further down until his last and most peculiar option came into place.

Misdreavus. Most trainers would have crossed off the Pokemon without a speck of research, as there were enough myths and savage superstitions to do with Ghost Pokemon to describe it in full. And yet, Ra'uf had felt obligated to understand his every option to the fullest, and had spent a considerable amount of time researching each and every ghost Pokemon in the region as well as the other types.

What he'd was that he liked almost all of them. They were strange, yes, but they were the only Pokemon in the wild that attacked Humans for a different reason than the normal feral qualities that infected every other sort of wild Pokemon. Mischievousness. The ghost Pokemon held a natural and extreme love of playing tricks and causing problems, as well as an insatiable sense of humor, that led them to attack humans. Not many people had been brave enough to raise a ghost Pokemon, but the few that had reported that they were perfectly trainable, and that there desire to cause mischief could instead be channeled into a harmless playfulness.

The main problem with the Pokemon was that the Alpha system did not work on their Psyche, a particularity which made them an even more attractive choice in Ra'uf's mind. Most trainers who had tried to raise them had found that the universal method of training simply did not work on the ghost type. The fact that the Pokemon's unique problem was that it needed a new, undevised system of training seemed beyond coincidence.

The total number of ghost Pokemon in existence was small, and it had not taken long for Ra'uf to find his preference of the bunch, the pure ghost type Misdreavus. It had been a hard choice, though, as all of the ghost types had strongly appealed to Ra'uf. Well, almost all. Though most of the Ghost type Pokemon were exaggerated in the stories of them, only one had truly appeared to be the monster that the people of Tohoku made them out to be.

Shuppet and its evolved form, Bayonette, the vengeance Pokemon. Though the two were non feral, just like the other ghosts, what motivated the two to attack humans was a pure an instinctual love of chaos and hatred. The Pokemon literally gained sustenance from anger, and were known to cruelly torture their victims in such a way that sent them into a rage, so as to gain the most from the meal, before viciously killing their prey for the fun of it. Ra'uf had never heard of something so evil before in his life, and had crossed off the Pokemon after only minutes of Research, wondering how something so terrible could exist.

The choice of Misdreavus could not be defined, like the others, into a number of pro's and cons that all added small weight in favor for or against the choice. To pick Misdreavus was a pure gamble that would either be the most rewarding risk of his career, or the most devastating. If Ra'uf could get the Pokemon to listen, he would have gained a powerful ally with only a few weakness, many resistances, a terrific personality mesh and that had an excellent selection of moves and stats. If Ra'uf could not get the Pokemon to listen, he would have wasted his one free poke ball, and would be left to try and gain work in some other profession.

The problem with that was that Pokemon trainers were not educated beyond very fundamental level in Math, English, and History, their overall education just slightly worse than that of an eighth graders. If Ra'uf messed up as a Pokemon trainer, he would spend the rest of his life working in a field or factory handicapped by his general ignorance of how to function in a world he wasn't raised for. What usually happened to people in his position was that they starved on the streets, eventually contracting some common sickness that with a little bit more money could have been countered, but because they were dirt poor killed.

To pick Misdreavus was all or nothing, and yet every ounce of him yearned to take the chance, to risk his life on the single possibility that he could raise the fascinating and strange Pokemon, to discover if his unique and untested methods were the key to training a Ghost. It was all tempting.

Ra'uf scanned over his choices, and made his first decision, erasing the page that held Hitmontop's data. Despite all the good reasons to pick the fighting type, something in the attitude of the Pokemon was, on second thought, very unappealing. The second to go was Girafarig, the Pokemon just too unlikely to start off on the right leg when compared to Chickorita, though Misdreavus was of course a bigger bet. That left the small and affectionate grass type or the Ghost anomaly.

Ra'uf stared hard at the choices, debating fiercely in his mind which to choose. Reason was unanimously on the side of Chickorita, but a perfectly unreasonable desire for Misdreavus raged against the grass type choice, and Ra'uf found himself faced with the toughest decision of his life. Chickorita meant security, job assurance, and would be an overall fantastic partner and easy to train. The Pokemon was everything that a trainer should think of when choosing a starter, but despite it all was simply not the one Ra'uf wanted. In a way, the Pokemon was too tame, too easy. Training it lacked all the profound risk and possibilities that Misdreavus emanated like a sirens call. And like the sirens call there was doom in the choice.

But no matter how hard his brain fought to select Chickorita, Ra'uf's spirit stuck fast to Misdreavus. Eventually, Ra'uf silenced his own reason and erased the page holding Chickorita's data, feeling as if he was throwing a dice to decide his life. If his own ideals had any founding, than was sure that he would not regret the decision. Otherwise, his life would come to a very early and tragic end.

That in mind, Ra'uf spend the remaining few days devising a capture plan and putting his reason into words. On the last day of the second week, Ra'uf woke early and for the second time in a month made his way to the Auditorium, this time to take the quiz that would earn him a single poke ball and a week in the perilous wild. And if he succeded in the capture, than the real challenge was still to be faced. That was the choice he'd made.


	3. Reaching the mountain

Hey there, possible fan base. I hope you exist, and i hope you are reading this story. In fact, it is largely that hope that leads me to write and update. The rest is pure self motivation and love of writing, so very undependable factors.

On a personal note, monday was my birthday. I turned 15 on the fifteenth. Hah!

On a professsional note, i have finally finished this next chapter. For personal reasons, it has been an immense challenge, and after several versians and repeated editing, i finally feel confidant in what i've written. To all those who have helped along that confidance, thank you very much (you being my wonderful reviewer Sythrider and miss jkminimoon for a generous comment in one of her responses. Both are terrific authors, so read their works of you get a chance)

Thanks for reading my work, and i sincerely hope you enjoy this next chapter of The Pokonomist. Once you have finished, please be kind enough to read and review. Comment and critisism, even when slight, are appreciated more than those of you who are not authors can imagine.

--

Ra'uf sat anxiously back in his chair and waited, eying the front. All around him the scribbling of pen on paper resonated, signaling that he had made good time in completing his quiz. Now, all he could do was wait, his future fate in the hands of Mr. Gershom.

The stretch of time felt tangible and agonizing to Ra'uf, a mix of excitement and nervousness pulsing through him and clashing to ill effect. He hoped beyond hope that he had succeeded, but feared more than he had ever feared anything in his life that he had failed, and the ever present consciousness that the nearby future would tell drove Ra'uf on edge.

Two hours passed with Ra'uf high strung, and all around him the faint scribbling slowly lost force. Other students were finishing their quizzes, turning them into be graded and relaxing back into their own seats. As a result, the faint buzz of conversation was becoming more prominent, and all around the room the whispers of the others echoed. Ra'uf tensed even further, the silence oppressive and the waiting torturous, and a strong desire for conversation of his own began to mount in his mind. And yet, the single soul in the room who could have provided Ra'uf with the relieving company he desired sat hunched in his own corner, his pen one of the few left still scribbling across a test sheet.

Another half of an hour passed, and Ra'uf watched with in relief as the second to last student passed in a paper and sat down to join the others in conversation. The last student to be finished continued on as normal, withholding from Ra'uf the company that he so desperately desired. He began to urge his friend on, mentally straining for the moment when Latif would set down his pen and rise from his chair, moving to deposit his small test form onto Mr. Gershom's work station. The next ten minutes passed to Ra'uf in painful slowness, his every nerve trained on his friend.

Finally, Latif's writing slowed to a stop, the pen flourishing once over the paper as Latif reviewed his written work before coming to rest next to the test form. Standing up and gathering his paper, Latif strode silently to the front of the room, and a collective sigh seemed to float from every corner of the Auditorium. The others and Ra'uf felt the restrictive silence of the past couple of hours break, and a sudden increase in volume and excitement flooded the dark room. Latif climbed onto the stage at the front of the room, where a small desk had been moved to act as Mr. Gershom's temporary work station. Depositing his paper onto the mess of forms on the old teachers desk, Latif made his way back onto and up the isles, taking himself on a different route on his return that led him past his own mobile workstation and towards that of his friends. A grin broke out on Ra'uf's face as Latif approached, and he witnessed as the oppressive silence that had plagued him the morning through vanish in the wake of his friend.

Catching the grin on Ra'uf's face, Latif felt one of his own springing into place as he sat down, the sudden realization of the torment he caused his friends torment over the last couple of hours bringing with it a slight wave of guilt. Grinning apologetically now, Latif exhaled guiltily and looked to the side, absentmindedly scratching the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Sorry... The paper had all these problems it needed taking care of, and I got caught up helping the poor thing." He said in an undertone, the sound lost quickly in the noisy conversation emanating from the others. Ra'uf nodded in mock sympathy. " I know exactly what your talking about. Just two hours ago I had to deal with my own helpless sheet. In the end, I lost patience with the poor thing and ended up solving all its problems on the sharp edge of cold steel," Ra'uf said with exaggerated remorse, dramatically lifting his closed palm into the air and stabbing the metal tip of pen towards the ceiling.

Latif laughed softly in response, competitively searching for a witty reply. "My method was barely better. The moment I was finished with its rambling, I dragged it up on to the stage and threw it to Mr. Gershom. One can only imagine what will befall it now."

"Thats terrible."

"The fiend gave me a paper cut. It was deserved."

Ra'uf laughed, trying to draw up another witty reply but coming up blank. Sighing, he leaned back into his chair and turning to the front. "Rats...you win," he said, and Latif nodded in empathy, also turning to face the front. "It happens. Better luck next time." he said, and the usual comfortable silence fell over the two. Ra'uf settled into waiting patiently for Mr. Gershom to finish sorting through and grading all the test papers before him.

Unlike the waiting of the previous few hours, he felt relaxed, and the time drifted easily past without any of the anxiety from earlier. When Mr. Gershom finally stopped sorting through papers and stood up to address the class, Ra'uf felt only a slight jump in his chest as his heart accelerated. Clearing his throat with the traditional "Huh-hem", Mr. Gershom sat back onto his desk and began to speak.

"Huh hem. Alright. I've gone through all of your papers and graded them pretty carefully. So, everybody listen up now, and ill share who gets to risk getting torn limb from limb and who's managed to get themselves stuck moping floors for a year. Now, in public schools, they normally would not allow me to reveal personal information about all of you to the class, and I'd have to over all of your test results in person. Here, however, there's only eight of you, and your all so close I'd be wasting my time trying to keep something like this private. Decides, all of the people who passed will be be flying on the same helicopter in just a moment, and it wont be tough to figure out who's there and who's not there. So listen up.

Alec, Marrissa, John. You three failed. Gather up anything you illegally thought you'd bring with you and take it into my office. Leave yourselves there as well. We'll be discussing your future once I'm done here." A tense silence held the room, and for a number of seconds the aftershock of what Mr. Gershom had just said floated through everyone's mind. Then, the class collectively turned to stare at those who had been failed. Alec had turned pale and slumped into his seat, and the defeat and hopelessness that Ra'uf saw there was frightening in its extremity. Marrissa was suspended in her shock, mouth slightly agape and eyes staring blankly ahead as she processed what had just been revealed to her. John was the only of the three who didn't seem stunned by the news.

Instead, he stood up violently, Sneering at Mr. Gershom, and shot the old teacher the dirtiest look he could manage. Then, his hand rose from its place at his side in the form of a rude hand gesture, holding it there for a moment to exaggerate the message. Then, he let his hand drop and turned in an angry huff, speeding destructively out of the isle he had been sitting in. Alec, who was seated in his way, was thrown onto the floor, the movement knocking him out of his daze. Reaching the next person down the isle, Marrissa, John angrily lashed out with his foot, catching his friends obstructing knee. With a yelp, Marrissa withdrew the offended limb, setting both her legs safely onto her chair and glaring at John as he went by. Stepping out of the isle, the angry teen finished by breaking into angry sprint and dashing out of the exit, forcefully sending both doors flying as he went by. The doors crashed against the side of the building and rebounded shut, blocking Johns figure from view and leaving the rest of the class to stew in the unpleasant aftermath of his tantrum.

Marrissa followed next, reserving herself to a single angry glare at the teacher, and Alec followed in a depressed sort of slump, the sluggishness of his movement suggesting conscious effort in every drawn out step. The whole thing felt unlawful to Ra'uf, sort of blasphemous, as if some deep and commonly understood rules of conduct had been breached. No one had ever been rude to Mr. Gershom, and even the thought of it had been dispelled from their minds years ago. The man had made it clear it was not something he would tolerate. And yet Mr. Gershom watched all of this patiently, reacting to none of the angry, last second spitings of the angry students. When the last of them shuffled through the door, Mr. Gershom sighed audibly, and Ra'uf was relieved to see that the man was human enough to look disappointed and regretful. The teacher continued with none of his usual humor.

"...Those three will be alright, they'll get another chance. Don't worry about them. Their just getting a later start than the rest of you. In the meantime, Congratulations! Heh. The remaining lot of you pass. If you go out of this building and head left, there's a couple bags of supplies waiting for you at the entrance. All of you get one pack back only. Inside will be a couple of basic tools, and in the front most and smallest pocket will be a single Pokeball and your remote. Sort through your supplies and remove anything you feel will be a hindrance, as well as the Pokeball and remote. Leave the junk right there on the ground, and take the other two items over to the man in the Helicopter. These are your ticket on. Once hes sure you have those two things, your on board. Tell the man where your going, sit down, strap up, and then _pack those things somewhere safe._ Your on your own from that point on. Good luck. If you survive, I'll be seeing you one last time for the graduating ceremony. If not, then at least you wont have to live in shame. Heh heh heh." The class stared blandly at Mr. Gershom for a moment in collective distaste of his humor, and the old man glared back, annoyed. "Huh hem. Get out of here."

--

Ra'uf glanced around the ground around him, noting the many backpacks strewn about. All of the packs were identical in size, shape, and color, so Ra'uf picked up the closest large dark brown and green bag at his feet. Studying the outside of it for a moment, Ra'uf then flipped the item around and opened the small frontal pocket, withdrawing from it the precious remote and Pokeball. The remote he handled with care, shifting it delicately in his grasp with the knowledge that his survival depended on the item, but the Pokeball he stared at in reverence. The small, circular object was no larger than his thumbnail, and yet his hand drooped considerably, weighed down by his invisible awe for the device.

Somehow, the piece of technology before him was capable of capturing a creature thousands of times its size, instantly making it the property of whatever trainer had been fortunate enough to cast it. Strength, size, shape, and typing were irrelevant to the Pokeball. Once used, it would then neutralize the aggressive hormones produced by it's Pokemon captive. The item was amazing, the development of some genius scientist who had worked for the league before a mysterious disappearance, and was perhaps singularly responsible for the survival of the human race. It was the Pokemon trainers most valuable tool, expensive as diamonds, and it was resting in the palm of his hand.

Tearing his eyes off of the Pokeball, Ra'uf clenched his fist shut around the small device and transferred it safely into his pocket along with the remote. Turning back to the bag, Ra'uf opened one of the bigger compartments and peered curiously inside, Mr. Gershom's advice to clear out any useless items echoing in his mind. Shuffling through the contents, Ra'uf quickly began to see why he had mentioned it.

Inside was contained a number of useful items that had been fitted tightly inside the rather large bag. As well as containing many necessary items that Ra'uf noted and set aside, the backpack held a number of terrain specific things that Ra'uf recognized he would not be needing. Removing an inflatable raft and a number of smaller items such as a burn ointment, Ra'uf placed the remaining and useful items back into the bag. The kept items included an ice pick, a sleeping bag, flint, a compass, a single sheet of paper and pen, a flashlight, and over sized fleece sweater, a first aid kit, a white tarp, a towel, a large and empty container for water, a knife, and a rope. Aside from the sleeping bag, which was rolled up and strapped on top of the backpack, Ra'uf gratefully stuffed all of the remaining items into the camouflaged bag.

Content with the items provided, Ra'uf zipped up the bag and gripped it by the handle, lifting the heavy item alongside him as he made for the Helicopter. Ra'uf's reaction to the aircraft had been very similar to his reaction towards the Pokeball. Like the red and white ball, the aerial transport vehicle was the most technologically advanced and expensive thing he had ever laid eyes on. The choppers atop the huge metal device rotated madly, great gusts of wind whipping outwards and driving dust and pebbles unto Ra'uf's approaching form. Captivated, he approached the vehicle, as well as the black suited man meant to ensure that he had the necessary items. Upon reaching the man, the pilot held out his right hand expantly, and Ra'uf tore his eyes of off the mechanical wonder before him to reach into his pocket. Taking from it the Pokeball and remote, Ra'uf brought the two items up for the man to see, earning him a quick scan followed by a nod of approval from the man.

Nodding back, Ra'uf clenched his fist securely around the two items and stepped into the Vehicle, strapping himself up in one of the corners. The copter itself was an impressively large machine, and the holding area that Ra'uf was now seated in led him to suppose that it's usual function was as a league trainer carrier. The compartment held two parallel benches that ran along each side, and by his estimates would normally have been used to transport twenty highly trained adults. That day, however, the space would merely be useful in putting ground between Latif and his self's side of the craft and the others. The next student up seemed to agree with this, and settled himself down close to the entrance and therefore fartherst from Ra'uf. For some reason, the shift seemed comical to Ra'uf, and he chuckled slightly to himself as the other continued to ignore him.

One by one, a scattered procession of students filled the Helicopter, having apparently finished selecting and sorting through their own bags. Latif was the the third one to enter, as well as the only one to move beyond the entrance and settle up next to Ra'uf. Ra'uf nodded in greeting, the action poorly reflecting the gratitude he felt for his friend. When the last of the students were inside, the man who had been standing outside of the craft moved suddenly into action. With a loud creaking and grating of metal on metal, a large metal door moved over the entrance, sealing the small chamber. The room darkened noticeably, the main source of light now spilling in from the number of small windows spread throughout the room, but the drop in volume was considerably more noticeable. A heavy feeling had settled in Ra'uf's gut, and judging from the absolute silence of every other student in the room the others had been similarly affected. Latif, who had strapped himself up opposite to Ra'uf, shared a grim look with his friend.

After several minutes of uncomfortable waiting, the low buzz of the Helicopter blades began to pick up, and Ra'uf felt a thrill of excitement that sent his stomach fluttering as the Helicopter began to rise. Soon, the blades had drowned out the low hum of the engine, the low whirling which before had seem rhythmic but disconnected blended into one hectic sound. Then, with a sudden but gentle lurch, the Helicopter lifted off, and Ra'uf felt pure exhilaration flood his system. He was flying! Peering outside of the window, he could see the ground grow smaller and smaller as the craft rose, and Ra'uf looked away from the sight to share another glance with Latif. This time, both of them were grinning madly, and from the other side of the helicopter he could hear as the others celebrated their own joy with noisy whoops and shouts.

The helicopter began to fly forward, and Ra'uf grew comfortably relaxed with the movement and the noise. The others had begun to chat again, and both Latif and himself were too entranced by the new experience to either care or notice. Eyes constantly peering out the window, Ra'uf watched in fascination as the land that he had always lived in but never really known revealed itself.

-- -- --

The time passed from minutes into hours, and Ra'uf never lost interest in the landscape revealed to him. The city he had left was known as Iwate, and existed on the far western shore of Tohoku. Above that point was the city of Hiraizumi, and the exclusive domain of the fire type Pokemon. To the east of Iwate were open fields and valleys occupied by the bug and poison types, and the route that led from the south side of the city to Akita was plagued by them. The road from Akita city led east to Fukushima, and was where the regions grass and normal types were known to dwell. The entire of Tohoku was set up in that way. One city led to the next through a single route, each of which was infested with its own Pokemon typing. Generally, the type of Pokemon sen in any one area could be predicted, as the Pokemon had long ago staked their own territories according to type.

The job of Pokemon trainers were to defend the cities, and to additionally escort supplies transported from city to city. Once within the walls of the next city the supplies were perfectly safe, but the routes they traveled required heavy Pokemon guard. As a result, people tended to live out their lives in just one area, moving being to dangerous of a risk for both themselves and their supplies without spending a great deal for trainer protection. Most of the trainers pay came from the league sponsored supply movements and the individual merchant movements from city to city. As all cities were abundant in some resource or another, the combination of moving envoys and merchants kept society functioning.

The region was comprised of ten cities, eight of which contained a Gym and moderate population. The last two cities were the crown jewels of the nation, the Evergrand city and Indigo Plateau. The Evergrand city was the beating heart of Tohoku, a city which had flourished to the point that it supplied half of the rations ferried throughout the region. All scientific advances usually occurred inside of the city, and all of the sporting events and media programs that the nation enjoyed took place in and were filmed inside it's borders. If Ra'uf was successful in his career, there was a chance that he might pass through the city on his way to the Indigo plateau, a city whose entire function and make up was as Pokemon League headquarters.

No one outside of the league really new much about the Indigo Plateau. Some reports held that the city was an extravagant masterpiece of architecture and wealth, but no pictures had ever leaked forth to prove such rumors. The single exception to the media shroud was the Pokemon league tournament, held in a stadium inside the Indigo Plateau that most in the nation knew so well they could describe it by memory. Every four years, the Pokemon trainers of the nation competed for the title of League Champion, the most powerful position in the nation. Any trainer was allowed to enter, so long as they owned a full party of six Pokemon and all eight gym badges. If Ra'uf ever came so far as to defeat the eight gyms and earn their proofs of succes, he himself would pass through the Evergrande city and compete in the Indigo Plateau.

That was all very far off in the distance, however, and Ra'uf's mind was to busy enjoying the amazing view of the country below to care about the fabled Evergrande or Indigo plateau. The Helicopter was leading them north, into fire country, at a speed that was amazing considering the smoothness of the ride, and it ferried Ra'uf to the begining of his career. The glorious triumph of his Pokemon training was something he resolved to fantasize about only once it's actual start had been secured. Until then, the idea of gaining his first Pokemon was great enough, and he allowed his brain to center on success with Misdreavus rather than at the Plateau.

Three hours had passed, and it was noon when the vehicle descended to its first destination. The helicopter found a flat pitch of ground to land on in the barren environment, and one of the others departed, nervously stepping from the aircraft and into the unpredictable wild. Ra'uf watched her go through one of the windows, hoping silently for her own success and safty, and when the Helicopter was too far up into the air to see her he turned away. This time, the aircraft began to fly to the southeast, and Ra'uf's thoughts on the other vanished as he realized that that the vehicle would soon be passing over Aomori, the port town of Tohoku. Barely twenty miles to the east of Aomori was his own stop, where he would capture the wrongly notorious Misdreavus.

The snowy mountain that was it's habitat was known as the sea jutting peak, named so for its characteristic location. Though its southern side was attached to the land route that ran from Aomori to Yamagata, its northern side protruded from the ocean at a sheer angle. Great thrashing waves weathered that side of the mountain, striking hundreds of feet high on collision before receding to dramatic depths. In watching it approach, Ra'uf couldn't help but be entranced at the awesome display of nature, and an interesting thought floated through his consciousness at the sight. This was _his _stop, his mind whispered, _his _mountain. There would be the setting of his trials.

There, he got off.

--

The shoreline of Aomori was something of a great circle, extending west and upwards towards the fire region to the west then east and upwards towards the indigo plateau. Only a small opening between Hiraizumi and Indigo filtered in fresh ocean water, and the waters in between were the land and property of the Aomori sailors. Ra'uf could see them from the Helicopter, a great mass of sail boats that stretched for miles over the ocean. It amazed him, in a way, to see so many ships and know that every second they stood in danger of pokemon attack. And yet, from his position he could also see what appeared yto be the distorted figures of Pokemon in the distance, and Ra'uf knew that the impressive guardians of the sailors were not something to underestimate. Their mere size was shocking, and in gazing at them he was reminded of why water Pokemon, despite requiring a water based field to operate, were so popular. They were giants. But all of this Ra'uf was forced to observe in a very short deal of time.

The entire city was passed in minutes, and before long the great throng of sailboats vanished back into the distance. Turning to look in a different direction, Ra'uf saw lands that would be concerning him much more in the nearby future than the port city. Only five minutes from the city, the sea jutting peek came fully into view, and Ra'uf tried to analyze the difference in scale between the pictures he'd seen of it and the colossus it apeared to him now. When the Helicopter began to descend, Ra'uf shot Latif an anxious look, and his friend instantly understood what was about to transpire. For some reason, this seemed to greatly surprise Latif, and he stared for a moment in shock at Ra'uf before chuckling to himself and turning away. Curious, Ra'uf eyed his friend. What was so funny? Or so suprising? There was nothing special about Ra'ufs sudden departure, so why?

He didn't get long to think on it. Seconds later, the aircraft began to descend, thoroughly distracting Ra'uf from the previous anomaly. As the Helicopter continued to sink, Ra'uf looked about him in wonder, trying to figure out how they planned to land in the thick forest below. Moments later, the aircraft came to stop mid-air, and the bangs and grating of metal on metal once again echoed through the room. Moments later the sound repeated, and a sudden burst of noise and wind invaded the helicopter as the door swung open. Suspended there was the man from earlier, held securely by a line running from the cockpit to his vest, and Ra'uf stared in wonder and sudden anxiety at him. The man peeked inside, and Ra'uf tensed himself in anticipation.

"RA'UF! THIS IS YOUR STOP! UNBUCKLE CAREFULLY, GRAB YOUR BACKPACK AND HURRY OVER HERE. WE CAN'T LAND, SO YOUR GONNA HAVE TO CLIMB DOWN. COME ON!" The man shouted, and Ra'uf sprang into action , unbuckling himself as instructed and thrusting on his backpack while stumbling carefully to the front, the unstable motions of the helicopter off setting his balance. When he finally reached the entrance, the man tossed something akin to a jacket of straps towards him, and gestured impatiently for him to put it on. Ra'uf scrambled to do so, and once the man saw that it was firmly in place he passed a rope through the jacket, configuring it in a way that the mans broad shoulders blocked from view. That done, the man moved out of the entrance, revealing a rope that ran all the way to the ground below, and Ra'uf had the frightening revelation of how the Pilots had solved their landing problem. The man gave him an entirely unsympathetic look that made him understand he was to begin climbing down.

Ra'uf glanced anxiously over the side, heavily hesitant to begin climbing down, but the impatience he felt coming from the man drove him into action. Bracing himself, Ra'uf knelt onto the floor and grabbed the rope, turning around so that he could exit feet first from the craft. Crawling backwards, he felt a thrill as his feet eventually left even ground and poked through the entrance. With a final burst of courage, Ra'uf forced himself to slide backwards and out of the aircraft.

For a single terrifying moment he fell, his heart seeming to curse him for his stupidity with its frantic pace. Then, the rope attached to his jacket caught snug, jerking him roughly against the side of the helicopter. He attempted to hover there for a moment and regain his senses, pleading desperately to his pounding heart that he was still alive and therefore it should really start pumping again, but the man from above shouted, "GO! GO!" and Ra'uf was forced once more into action, a strong disliking for the impatient pilot rivalling the intensity of his terror . It was strange and frightening at first, but as he grew accustomed to the feeling he felt only an urge to have solid ground beneath him for the first time in hours. Climbing swiftly, he broke through the canopy below and continued down, his feet eventually landing on solid ground. Somehow still feeling rushed by the cursed man above, Ra'uf hurried out of his suit and moved away from the rope. Watching it for a second, Ra'uf thought silently to himself how he might signal he was down, then gave the rope two solid tugs.

Nothing happened. Giving it one last, curious glance, Ra'uf holstered his backpack onto a more comfortable position and began to move through the forest. The helicopter itself would scare away any Pokemon in the area for a short while, and by then it was important that he had secured shelter for the night. Tomorrow he would begin his search. Breathing in deeply, Ra'uf turned his back on the rope and walked off into the forest, keeping his eyes on the looming figure of the mountain before him that would be the source of all his troubles in the weeks to come. And, if he was lucky, the thing that would provide the single treasure that made the entire trip worthwhile. Really, though, luck would be a very small portion of it. In reality, it all depended on him.

--

Watching his friend go, Latif felt his own anxiety beginning to mount in him. It was his turn now. He felt a slight relief that his friend had made it, though climbing down had not necessarily been a dangerous task. Not at all dangerous, he tried to think, frantically watching as the man in the doorway turned back into the room.

"YOU THERE! OUT NEXT! LATIF!"

He shouted, and Latif cringed into action. Following the same steps as his friend, Latif soon found himself similarly drooping over the side of the Helicopter. The feeling of hanging there, assaulted by the turbulent winds and roaring sounds of the copter above while tormented by the pilots god awful stare, held Latif there for a moment. He needed a second to gather his wits back, but the man above was increasing the intensity of his glare, and Latif found himself coerced into moving far earlier than he felt comfortable with. Like Ra'uf, however, he broke through the canopy below with no problems, and settled safely onto ground seconds later. Hurrying out of the uncomfortable suit and unto the blessedly solid ground beneath his feet, Latif gave the line his own series of solid tugs, and moments later the rope began to ascend out of the canopy.

It was interesting watching something seem to climb by itself into the air, and Latif watched transfixed as the rope departed. When it was gone, he stood still for a moment, and then reflected upon the strange coincidence that had just been made apparent to him. Ra'uf had come here, to the sea jutting peak, for a Ghost. There was no mistaking it. Every other type in the area could be caught somewhere else far easier than on the mountain. Like himself, his friend had chosen to pursue a career with one of the infamous monsters of folk tales.

Grinning, Latif stared at the mountain before him, wondering what particular Ghoul Ra'uf would capture. It had seemed to him, from the aircraft, that his friend was headed directly towards the scalable base of the mountain, and Latif wondered what Ra'uf would find on his way to the summit. It felt comforting, too, in a way, to know that his greatest and only friend had chosen the same irrational path that he himself had settled on.

Encouraged, Latif walked off towards his own destination, the dark north side of the mountain. There, at the chaotic focal point of the mountain and the ocean, were a number of dark caves where he would find his starter. All he need do was follow the trail of broken corpses and haunted silence and he would find the spot. An area that the wild Pokemon had rightly learned to fear. There, a Shuppet would be waiting...


	4. The Mountain: Ascending

AUTHORS NOTE:

Wooh! wow, this was something of a challenge. im starting to truly understand how difficult writing can be, and my life events have a major impact on my consistancy, so that one paragraph may have been written tuesday by a content me and the next written thursday by Exasperated, drowning in discontent me. Still, i feel like this is a milestone. four chapters is an accomplishment, and at over twenty thousand words this story is now something real. In the future, i look forward to creating and cultivating this into something i can truly be proud of. In the meantime, ive got a long ways to go, but i feel pretty confidant. Still, i could use your support, and taking just two minutes to write a review does wonders for me. To all of those so far who have reviewed, thank you, you truly make this worthwhile. To all of those who are simply reading this story, i understand that, too, and it certainly makes me happy just knowing this is being read, though i hope you will someday leave a review. So, without further ado, i present the forth chapter of THE POKONOMIST, and i hope you all enjoy it.

-- -- -- --

The gentle morning sun rays stirred Ra'uf, and it took him a moment to gather his bearings and realize why he was sleeping in a small stone enclave rather than that years dorm. When the knowledge returned, he jolted out of bed, paranoia striking his mind and shattering the ease he had felt upon waking. Ra'uf cast his eyes suspiciously around the cave, disregarding the apparent peace of his surroundings and searching wildly for an intruding Pokemon, his heart beat the only noise apparent to him. Moments passed, and yet nothing jumped from the shadows or revealed itself to his careful scrutiny, and the skeptical student was forced to accept that he was entirely alone and safe in his temporary camp.

Soothed, Ra'uf sighed deeply and relaxed back into a laying position. He had bolted upright in his fear, but the calm of his surroundings along with the warming glow of his camp fire worked to lull him. His pulse returned to a normal rate, and the thick haze of sudden terror receded enough for sensible thoughts to begin flowing through his mind.

So he had survived his first night in the wild, he mused. He had escaped all of the initial dangers waiting to tear his life from him, and effectively employed five years of rigorous training. This morning was a success, simply because he was still alive and for no other more intricate reason. It was fascinating to him, how simple was the world that he had climbed down from the helicopter into.

The area he was in was the home of only two dangerous types of Pokemon, the Ice and Ghost type, and the later was rare and less likely to be any sort of danger. Simple trinkets and a constant moderation of his feelings, which many different ghost types fed off of, would keep him safe from the mischievous ghouls. In fact, Ra'uf almost hoped that he might encounter one, as his research had assured him that all ghost types held a deadly fear of abandoned or dismembered body parts, which included much less gory items such as feathers and abandoned snake skins.

In response, Ra'uf had fashioned a scarecrow composed of both feathers and snake skins and crowned with a rather crude sketch of a Raticate's head. The result was a rather comical looking length of wood that Ra'uf felt would be fun to brandish angrily at any troublesome specters unlucky enough to choose him as a victim. Certain books had also suggested adding sound effects to the makeshift scarecrow, such as screaming and hissing. The idea of defending himself in such a way put the previously frightening prospect of warding off Ghosts into a rather more pleasant perspective. Just thinking about it lightened Ra'uf's mood, and he found himself grinning slightly as the unpleasant pounding in his chest began to fade.

The Ice types, unfortunately, were much more trouble. Ghost types were generally pure Ghost, which limited them to a single predictable habitat that Ra'uf had defined as dark and gloomy. The ice types, however, branched into grass, water, psychic, dark, ground, flying, and even ghost type sub classes. The snow covered forests, ice coated rivers, dark caves and cliffs, and even the barren alpine tundras ahead of him would be inhabited by some variation of the Ice type. Ra'ufs current spot at the base of the mountain put him in danger from almost every sort on the mountain, and he had reacted by safeguarding himself in the most general way possible. Ice types were dependent upon colder environments, and shunned strong heat sources from miles away, so Ra'uf had built a blazing fire in the sheltered enclave that he had chanced upon after hours of searching.

The enclave was nothing more than a deep dent in the front of the mountain that barely qualified as a cave, but Ra'uf had nonetheless been grateful for the added shelter and comfort it provided, as well as the time it saved. Without it, he would have been forced to do as would be the case in future nights, and spend a tiring deal of time digging into the snow for shelter. He had been unexpectedly lucky with the discovery.

Thinking of future nights reminded Ra'uf that such nights would be fruitless unless he held to a strictly rigorous travel schedule that allowed for absolutely no lazing about. Very much as he was doing now.

Sighing, Ra'uf heaved himself back into a sitting position and gave the small cave another quick, suspicious glance before standing up and yawning. Several layers of clothing and a thick fleece sweater slid off him at the movement, and the freezing winds of the area bit at his newly uncovered form, reminding him of the extreme cold that he had battled with the previous night. Route four, where he was currently situated, was renowned for its arctic climate, the main feature of the route which made it so attractive to its resident Ice types. Shivering in the morning winds, Ra'uf glanced at the overcast skies and tried to asses the time of day. It was cloudy and dark, and though the sun was still hidden light was beginning to seep through the thick layer of overcast. Ra'uf decided on sometime between six and seven in the morning.

Though the clothing before him offered instant relief from the cold, Ra'uf settled on a more indirect method of warming up that though initially a pain would be useful once he got to hiking. Clearing a small space in the camp, Ra'uf launched himself into a series of stretches that he was, unfortunately, very familiar with. The activity would loosen him up for the day ahead, as well as eventually forcing his body to warm itself up, but Ra'uf found it extremely difficult to focus on these positive aspects and far easier to complain bitterly about his sharp discomfort. Immense relief flowed through him when, after twenty terrible minutes, he finished, and the feeling accompanied him as he forced his sweaty and irritable self to begin packing camp.

Reaching his sleeping bag first, Ra'uf lifted several layers of the clothing he had slept in off of the ground and slid them over his head. It was unhygienic, Ra'uf knew, to both sleep in and wear the clothing, but with his life on the line Ra'uf felt cleanliness could take a back seat among his concerns. There was no time to worry about such things in the wild. Instead, Ra'uf pondered briefly whether to wear his fleece sweater as his first or final layer. When tucked into his pants, so as to form a tight seal, the fleece would provide necessary insulation that would be more effective as the outermost layer as well as covering his other clothing with a water proof layer. On the other hand, to wear it on the inside would isolate his sweat and in so trap in his scent. The question was whether health or Pokemon dynamics would be more important, and in this case Ra'uf decided on health. Wet clothing was terrible at preserving heat, and in the week to come the cold would be just as terrible a threat as Pokemon.

Fully dressed, Ra'uf packed away the scattered contents of his tent, collecting the leftover wrapper of the single instant meal that had been granted to him. In the future, he would have to scavenge for food, and Ra'uf resolved to keep a look out for anything edible during his travel. There was a vast array of plant life in the area, but Ra'uf would only go out of his way for one tree in particular, a breed of pine that could provide a plentiful ration of edible nuts. Failing to find one would force Ra'uf to spend hours of precious time stocking up on less filling alternatives, and the wasted time was something that he hoped to avoid.

When he finished packing, Ra'uf hesitantly turned to the still faintly burning bonfire. By adding logs of modulated dampness and size to the pile, Ra'uf had managed to provide enough fuel to sustain it through the night. Now, only several weak flames had managed to survive, fluttering faintly amongst a sea of ashes. Ra'uf felt fear creeping back into his system as he stared at the weak embers. The fire was his only ward against the Ice types, and he felt reluctant to either smother or depart from it, and yet reason resonated clearly through his mind. As much as he desired the added protection, to take it with him would be to reveal his presence to ever heat sensitive Pokemon for miles, and when they realized it was a moving source they would assume a fire Pokemon had invaded their mountain. Either he would be ambushed by an Ice type powerful enough that it could match a fire type, and therefore more than capable of dealing with himself, or a sudden gust of wind would blow out the flame, and the previously shying monsters would approach from every angle. He was safer without such risks.

Sighing, Ra'uf silenced his reluctance and smothered the tiny flame with his boot. A cloud of dust rose from the impact, but the flames disappeared. Breathing in a shaky breath, Ra'uf lifted his boot and allowed himself the single precaution he could take. Ducking down next to the ashes, he scooped a handful of the dead material out and stared at it for a second, watching the fine material stream out from around his hand, before bringing it swiftly up to the fleece coat and splashing it there. Little of it stuck, but Ra'uf brought more handfuls from the dead fire and rubbed it against the jacket. The action seemed conclusive, in a way, and Ra'uf fell into a contemplative silence. Snow had begun to fall gently down from the twilight sky, and the cave he had slept in now glowed with emptiness, a soft aura that seemed to expel him from its midst. He had taken up refuge in the cave and enjoyed the temporary peace it provided, but it was time now for him to move on. On, to harder things.

Ra'uf stored a final handful of the ashes into a pocket in his fleece sweater and then brushed the remaining material free from his hands. Standing up, he drew in a deep breath, before moving to the entrance. Glancing a final time at the cave behind him, Ra'uf saw it again as it had first appeared to him; Invitingly safe, a convenient haven for his endangered life. Then, he turned and left, circling around to face the steep mountain side above. Reaching back, he grasped the ice pick upon his back and struck it into the angled mountain, using it as a lever to begin his ascent.

--

Latif grinned happily around him, taking in the sight of dead, twisted trees and lack of life for miles and marking them as good omens. It was undoubtedly a path of destruction, but it was the sort of destruction that Shuppets caused, and that meant good things for himself. If he followed the trail of desolation to its core, he would find his starter and succeed in his ultimate goal of becoming a trainer. He had only just begun, but already he could practically taste his fast approaching finish, and it had him near salivating in his eagerness. So soon, and he would graduate, concluding five years of painful schooling and torturous isolation! He would be rid of the others, could escape the range of Mr. Gershom's mocking laughter, would break from his waiting and begin the life he had anticipated for years! He would be his own free soul. The future seemed bright, shining, and most gloriously of all, close. As if the next corner hid it from him.

Elated, he continued on his way, noting how lucky he was that the surrounding area was so devoid of life. There were only two types in the area, as he knew, and of them the Ice type was nowhere to be seen. He was beginning to figure that the type would not trouble him at all as he advanced, which left him to worry about the Ghost type. The thoughts that came up at that point could hardly be considered worrying, however. An approaching Ghost type might turn out to in fact be a Shuppet, which he could then follow directly to its nest and thus save himself an unpredictable number of hours searching. Perhaps days.

And if not, then it was a simple enough matter to defend himself from an alternate encounter. Before he had left, he had constructed the silliest looking scarecrow out of fallen feathers and the limbs of a teddy bear. The top of the stick was capped with the fake, disproportional green head of one of the countries media heroes, Kerly the frog. At the age of eleven, he had looked forward to the frogs occasional television showing and treasured the stuffed replica that he had ruined for the head, but he had stopped enjoying the program some years before. Brandishing the head at an attacking ghost would be the most fun he had with the action figure since his third year of schooling, and he thoroughly looked forward to the occasion. Some books had even suggested such gestures as hissing and stomping. Latif thought he might try that.

Grin broadening at the thought, Latif pulled the amusing stick from its place on his back and flourished it theatrically through the air. Bringing it down, Latif strung it across his shoulder in an exaggerated gesture and continued at a carefree pace, passing the scores of dead trees undaunted and ignoring the haunted silence. Staring around, the thought came unbidden to his mind that perhaps what he hoped to accomplish was not so far fetched after all. Bloody, difficult, and still so very far in the future, but closer now than it had ever been. More real, in that instant, than it had ever been. Just one week, and he would either open the door to a promising future or walk through into a chasm of consuming darkness, the only escape from which would be the escape from life. It seemed a disheartening thought, but instead inspired confidence in him. From where he stood, it seemed the door was already wide open, and that what shined from it was unmistakably the bright glow of Pokemon training.

Staring around at the still landscape, Latif noted that it was surprisingly smooth walking to such a destination. Hopefully, it would remain that way. But if not, he had his bear body and frog head stick to protect him. Latif patted the trusty pole and continued on his way, both his smile and his confidence never faltering. Even in the dark corners of his consciousness, whispers of caution failed to form.

-- -- --

Ra'uf shivered at the cold winds lashing at his back and took a quick break from his climbing. Breathing heavily, he stared around him, curiously assessing his progress and turning forward disheartened. It was nine in the morning now, from what he could tell, and the pace he had been traveling at had only carried him about a hundred feet closer to the summit. Sighing, he stared forward into the mountain, his eyes blank with thought and squinting from the cold. His limbs throbbed with the effort of climbing, but the pain was as of yet mild, and he knew that his body was strong enough to manage the next ten hours of constant use that was necessary to put the ground he needed that day behind him.

It was only the first day of his week, but he could already feel himself straining against his time limit, pressured to work through miles before its tight constrains forever robbed him of his future. He had little time allowed to him, great distances to cover, and harsh terrain to hinder him. Every second pressed him, and elicited a slight ripple of panic that pooled in his chest and trickled to his limbs, urging them into action

His current speed was good, as he was exceptionally safe from Pokemon while climbing the mountainside. Only bird Pokemon made their nests on such steep inclines, and the only part flying type that was also of the Ice type was an exceptionally dopey species known as Delibird. Relatively unintelligent, the Pokemon would be vicious in confrontation, and despite being comparatively weak would be more than a match for himself. Ra'uf was not too worried about the Pokemon, though. During the daytime, most flying types spent their time foraging or hunting, and the chance of encountering a nest was far more likely than running into its resident Delibird. It was best to avoid the nests anyway, as Ra'uf did not wish to risk revealing his distinguished human scent so directly to a Pokemon.

The nests themselves were large messes of mud and wood that stuck out brilliantly from their surroundings. Safe on their mountainside, stealth was something that the Delibirds had no need to bother with, and as a result Ra'uf could advance without fear of tripping across some sort of obscure danger. He had passed only a single nest so far, but as he reached higher altitudes he would find larger congregations of the cliff side homes. Along with the nests and his own undisguised passage, Ra'uf felt uncomfortably exposed, a feeling on multiple occasions had him resisting the urge to look behind him and assure that he was still alone.

Choosing to look up now, Ra'uf felt his current progress further belittled in seeing the miles of mountain still before him. Sighing, He forced himself to banish all negative thoughts and silence his mind altogether. Closing his eyes momentarily, he encouraged himself to review his goal, and was rewarded when moments later a feeling of purpose began to renew in him. His arms began to itch for action, and an intense desire to scale the seemingly indomitable cliff before him replaced his sense of hopelessness.

Opening his eyes, he allowed himself a single, deep breath, then launched himself back into a steady climb. His hands seemed to have no problems finding holds, and his eyes aided in the progress by searching them out ahead of time with razor clarity. As time went on, he began to note which crevices and indents ten feet above would best hold his weight, and to constantly plan his course as he moved. The mountain was usually barren and frosted, so that whenever the incline grew too steep Ra'uf would, in alarm, immediately switch to his pick and proceed cautiously until the ground straightened out again. obstructing tree and bushes were scarce, and only once so far had he been forced to circumnavigate an empty nest.

In fact, the scarcity of Pokemon was beginning to worry Ra'uf. As far as he could tell, the clanking and scratching of his ice pick digging into the mountain was the only sentient sounds for miles. When glancing out into the forest at the base of the mountain, the thick canopy of snow covered trees shrouded all of the life that might be moving underneath, and the similarly white and overcast sky obscured most of his vision. It seemed that all the world had been swallowed by the leagues of white, while his better sense on the subject warned him that thousands of Pokemon were hidden somewhere in the world around him. That he was advancing undisturbed could, at this point, only be contributed to his cliff like surroundings.

Weathered by extreme coastal conditions, the general humidity of the air at that level kept the dirt ground beneath Ra'uf slippery but bare. Ra'uf could already see the faint hints of shifting conditions in the form of occasional patches of snow, and the occasional glance upward had revealed something of a turning point another hundred feet overhead. Preceded by a brief stretch of heavily snow spattered land, a general blanket of white covered the upcoming land.

Ra'uf predicted that it was at this point his climb would become more difficult. Delibird would nest in greater quantities at the more wintry altitudes, and the snow would freeze his unprotected hands as well as handicap his progress. Once traversing the slippery substance, use of the ice pick would become necessary at all times, lest he lose his footing and slide a terribly long ways to a brutal ending. Even if he managed to halt his fall at some point, he would lose valuable ground that precious time and effort would be wasted recovering.

He didn't have time for such blunders, and in all honesty was not attracted to the idea of sliding uncontrollably down a mountainside. Life risking stunts were something Ra'uf had accepted having to chance performing, but he drew the line at dangerous and pointless. Some people thrived off of the adrenaline rush of daring and life threatening ventures, but as such ventures would be the norm of Ra'uf's every day life in the coming weeks, the idea lost something of its splendor. In many ways, daredevil attempts were more like voluntary overwork than sport to Pokemon trainers. In any case, Ra'uf would not need to go out of his way to get his adrenaline pumping.

--

Muscles starting to strain, Ra'uf felt the first handful of snow meet his hands. The sudden iciness stung them, and he withdrew them quickly, bringing them up to stare at his overturned palms. The cold had frozen them red and raw, and they burned like it was fire, not snow, that had touched them.

Taking a deep breath of the dense mountain air, Ra'uf took a moment to allow his lungs to calm and to praise himself for reaching his current height. He had carried on to this point at a speed he would likely not have a chance for in the following days, and the terrain he had just reached marked the shifting point from untroubled climbing to hazardous grounds. Here, the Delibird would begin to threaten him, and he would need to tread carefully to avoid a vicious and fatal encounter with the species.

Reaching into his pack, Ra'uf brought from the handy but heavy luggage a pair of thick Ski gloves, with which he immediately covered his numb hands. The frosted limbs continued to throb and burn painfully from within the protective material, but instant relief did not concern Ra'uf. The important thing was that his hands would remain insulated while he braved the snow, for frostbite of those particular limbs would bring his journey to an instant and disappointing end. There was no way to climb without hands, no way to toss a Pokeball, and no way to lift the protective plastic casing that covered the remote controls button. His hands had never been more pivotal, nor more endangered, and it would be an entirely poor time to lose them.

Pushing thoughts of demise from his mind, Ra'uf returned to climbing the peak, this time embedding the ice pick into the mountainside at each step. The angle of the mountain had sloped slightly, and the ground had become precariously slippery with the addition of snow, both of which were factors Ra'uf would not dare treat with negligence. It seemed, in his mind, that the extra expense of energy was a preferable loss to life.

Hours passed, in which Ra'uf settled into a steady rhythm composed of the clunking of his pick on frosted ground and the scratching and scraping of fleece against the snow. He was moving again, at a slower progression now, but moving all the same, and as he moved his thoughts drifted to a peaceful appreciation of the still land around him. He had never seen the earth from such a height, nor felt the cool touch of falling snow on his cheek.

The wild had been described to him as dangerous, and all his schooling had stressed the fact. What they had failed to mention was what he realized now, in his solitude; there was beauty in it, too, a raw display of untamed life and nature that fascninated him.

The monotonous repetition of climbing had allowed his thoughts to stray into such romantic avenues, and it was not until the third hour in the new, snowy coated environment that reality steered it back. For only a couple hundred feet away Ra'uf espied the first cluster of what were unmistakably Delibird nests.

Ra'uf stared at them and realized with sudden clarity what he was looking at. Caution was his original and ingrained reaction, that of the part of his being that had been fine tuned by year of tutelage under Mr. Gershom. A second part of his being, however, looked up at the strange formations and felt awed. THIS was his first true encounter with the wild, the first sight of anything Pokemon and therefore dangerous. THIS was his first real obstacle, of the sort that he would spend his life overcoming. THIS was where his skills would be put to the test.

Ra'uf brimmed with excitement and at the thought, at the same time doubt and dread gnawed at his heart. THIS, the emotions whispered, is where you fail. The confidence in him, however, rallied against the negative thoughts, calling forward to the challenge ahead. And whatever doubts he had felt disappeared as he swung his arm up and brought his ice pick down into the ground, some feet higher. He was eager, he realized, eager and ready. Ready for challenges, ready for adventure, ready to feel his heart throb with the thrill of Skittering around certain death. His life could end in the encounters to come, and then it would surely mean nothing, but in just facing that risk his life became glorious and valuable as never before. _This was where he was meant to be!_, Ra'uf thought, and laughed.

And yet, as Ra'uf reached and progressed through the colony, a strange and disturbing silence assaulted him. Every nest that he could see was empty, and showed signs of decadence found only in places that have long been abandoned. The nests themselves were a wonder, the interior a glossy and smooth frozen surface. Or at least, Ra'uf could tell from the rotting quality of the structure that that was once how it might have appeared. Now, cracks lined the surfaces of the nests, and dirt snow and debris had gathered into a faint layer over the ice that supressed its gleam and reminded Ra'uf of a dusty counter. Whatever life had once upheld the nests was long gone.

Unsettled, Ra'uf emerged from the cluster and continued climbing for some feet, aiming to gain a bit more height. At about thirty feet from the last of the nests, Ra'uf paused to turn and stare over at the display of structures now apparent below him. What revealed itself to him was a scattered field of emptiness and collective decay . The sight proved it to him, his seemingly rediculous suspicion; He was the only living thing on the cliffs. The rest had abandoned them for whatever reason. The idea was chilling, for Pokemon had in innate sixth sense for danger, and such a collective movement was not a positive sign. Something strong or terrible enough to scare away an entire flock of Delibird was present.

Whatever this new creature was, it seemed to Ra'uf that avoiding it would be best. Briefly, he wondered what sort of thing it could be, and it occurred to him then that the only other Pokemon in the area that could fly was the ghost type. So this was a good thing, then. He was getting closer to his goal.

Only thing to do was keep going.

--

Ra'uf was getting worried, now. It had been another hour since he had passed the nests, and the silence had yet to let up in any way. Along with the overcast sky and the shadow it cast upon the land, it seemed to him as if he was walking in some sort of horror. The Snow had picked up as well, becoming something of a violent stream that battered and agitated him, so that he wondered how he had ever appreciated the annoying substance. The weather was against him, and his mind tormented him with the mystery of the abandoned nests. Connecting the two, it seemed that there were many omens hinting at dreadful things ahead. He could not allow himself to stop, though, and to turn around at this point was not an option.

What worried him the most, however, was the mountain itself. Over the past half and hour, he had expected the snow to thicken with the altitude, and though he was not thrilled with the prospect it was what he had logically anticipated. Instead, the mountain had somehow began to grow bare again, and he was seeing plant life at this height that he had not expected to see again.

The phenomena was certainly not caused by the snow, which had done as it should have and become more troublesome. The problem, then, appeared to be the ground, for upon reaching it the snow melted within seconds. The result was a very damp and muddy ground that Ra'uf had been extremely careful with, but had been even more intrigued by. At one point, he had used the ice pick as a makeshift shovel, digging down into the drier layers below, and he had removed his gloves to feel out the soil quality. Rubbing it between his hands, he had realized that the soil was unnaturally warm.

The discovery had been both puzzling and informative, explaining why the snow was melting upon contact but leaving him to wonder why there was warm soil so far above ground. Volcanic activity? It was the only explanation, and yet it seemed odd to only see the first signs of a volcano at the elevation he was now. Whatever was happening to the landscape around him, it was unusual to the extreme, and the fact unsettled him. He knew how to deal with scenarios that were predictable, but to deal with the unexpected required experience. He was in over his head, if anything was really out of place.

--

When night began to fall, Ra'uf realized that there was a very great deal out of place. The cliffs were supposed to have evened out at this point, to have flattened into something of a tundra in which he could make Camp. Instead, the mountain had remained as inclined as always, and Ra'uf saw no signs in the distance that hinted of the appropriate shift.

The winds had turned harsh at some point, and wherever on his face it could reach him he had become numb with cold. The skies had darkened considerably, so that the landscape was a mix of purple and black disturbed by the great ocean of white flecks that drifted down from the sky. It was strange, in a way, to progress upwards when all the world around you was falling in the opposite direction. Ra'uf felt somewhat like he was going against traffic. But that was a senseless thought, and he had a pressing concern to deal with now. Ra'uf pushed it from his mind and focused.

What could he do? He needed shelter, that much was certain. In his back pack was a large tarp and some rope, so it would not be hard to construct a roof. What good was a roof, however, when the real danger was him turning in his sleep, gaining momentum, and then rocketing down the mountain. He needed flat ground, and the mountain would not provide it.

Well, the ground was not frozen, so digging was something of an option. More than something, actually, and definitively more plausible than to continue traveling. His limbs ached terribly from exhaustion, so much so that the numbing cold had become something of a blessing. To his face, however, the cold was nothing but agony. No – he had depleted himself for the day. It was time now to rest, and to rest called for shelter.

Straining his muscles, Ra'uf groaned to himself as he worked, scratching at the mountain with his ice pick at first but finding the freshly unearthed soil easy enough to remove with his hands. His body never ceased to remind him that it was tired and spent, the result of inconsiderately forcing it up a mountain. The discomforts encouraged him to work faster, and as he burrowed further into the mountain it occurred to him to angle the shelter somewhat downward, so that he was in something of a hole rather than a plane. The configuration would keep him more secure.

When he had finished digging, he eagerly nailed the tarp overhead using several sticks as nailes and then climbed under the creation. Cramped and small was the essence of the shelter, but blessed relief described it best in Ra'ufs opinion. Climbing into his sleeping bag, his heavy backpack acted as a pillow, and within minutes he had fallen asleep.

--

_**Day the second**_

Ra'uf woke with a start to find the roof mere inches from his face. Some time in the night, apparently, the build up of snow had forced it downwards. It was lucky, then, that he had woken up when he had, for given another couple of inches the weight may have displaced the pikes holding it into the ground. With the wind as strong as it was, the unattached item would have floated away, and then he would truly have problems.

Pushing the fallen surface away from the tip of his nose, Ra'uf sleepily went through the difficult task of dressing for the day with one hand raised above his head. Once finished with the only slightly less difficult task of packing his equipment, he let his arm fall, noting with mild interest that the roof fell with it. Sitting down cross legged, the tip of his head became the new pillar which supported the plastic ceiling, and he relaxed for a moment in that position.

He had no food. This was a disturbing and troublesome fact, and his stomach complained as loudly about it as his head. He had planned, at this point, to be scrounging for nuts in some sort of Boreal sanctuary, with only the the easily navigable threat of Pokemon to threaten him. Instead, he was several hundred feet above ground, trapped still on a steep incline, and entirely without sustenance. And while it was fortunate that the snow melted upon touching the ground, it also prevented him from gathering it together for drinking water.

Many argued that snow water was unsanitary, but recently fallen snow, as he would encounter in the mountains, was less dangerous. Considering the fact that he would now be required to literally pluck it from the sky, the snow would be about as clean as possible, so Ra'uf was not worried about that. That meant that he had water, but not food. That was O.K, but unfortunate. The human body could go up to two weeks without food, but it wouldn't take more than two days for hunger to become a serious discomfort. The best he could hope for was that the forest he had thought to find would reveal itself further up the mountain. Perhaps he had simply been going slower than he'd thought.

That brought up another issue. What was he going to do? Where was he going to go? Should he circle the mountain? To plow onward towards the summit would be dangerous, but what else was there to do that he could risk? He had only six days remaining, now, and all of that time needed to be spent as efficiently as possible. The summit was very far off, but it was his ultimate goal, and he could not afford to be diverted from it.

So it was decided, then. He would continue up, and hope for the best. Delibird had at some point survived on these cliffs, and he had spotted certain plants growing at times, so perhaps there was something that could sustain him, thought it seemed very much unlikely. Either way, his destination was upwards, and that was where he would go. If this terrible trial, which had first seemed a test of his knowledge, would now become a test of endurance, than so be it. The prize was the same either way, and Ra'uf wanted a Misdreavus and the new life as a trainer that came with it more than anything else at this point.

Standing up caused the tarp to go from caved in to peaking upwards, sending snow flying off of its surface. The sudden loss of weight felt good on his head, but didn't really matter much in the long run, as he removed himself from under it seconds later anyways. Packing up the tarp as well and stuffing it into his backpack, Ra'uf shouldered his equipment and began climbing, renewing his effort to scale the mountain.

--

That day proved as silent and uneventful as the last, which meant very near as unsettling. It seemed to Ra'uf that at any second now the ground should flatten out or that some angry Delibird should leap at him from the sky, cawing murderously. And yet, every time he looked up into the distance, he saw nothing but the same repetitious incline as was visible only feet in front of him, and every time he glanced over his shoulder at the sky he saw nothing but the now familiar traffic of falling snow. It amazed him, at this point, the sheer vastness of the snowfall. It seemed an entire ocean of it was falling from the sky, and that like a real ocean it swayed with tides.

Low tide was the peaceful moments when no wind blew and silence reigned, so that the snow fell almost straight. High tide was when the winds roared into action, and whipped the snow chaotically about the sky, reminisce in his mind to the waves of the deep sea storms that he had read about. Thrashing and fierce as the weather that drove them. He enjoyed watching the snow, and the "shifts in tide" were equally amusing and wondrous to him. The fresh night of sleep, apparently, had restored his ability to appreciate the scenery.

On the other hand, perhaps the alternative was just an even less pleasant thought. When not focused on the weather, he found his attention affixed to the never diminishing miles of mountain before him. It amazed him how consistent it was, never seeming to become noticeably steeper or shallower, and as far as his eye could see the strange anomaly of the melting snow was present. He had no doubts in his mind, now, that the Sea Jutting Peak was in fact a volcano.

No one had ever recorded the fact, but Ra'uf was not surprised by his researches faultiness. One of the first things Mr. Gershom had stressed was the complete ignorance of humans, of how they had gone from top of the food chain and omniscient to huddling pinpricks of their former grandeur, who could now only wonder at was happening in their world. He had even described satellites to him once. Fantastical devices that orbited the planet and connected the entire world via the internet and other such resources. Mr. Gershom had then shared how the satellites had been smashed from space by Rayquazas, and how now a very tall tower off the Aomori coast sent the radio signals that provided internet and telephone connections. The signal length was sufficient for Tohoku, but ended there. Technology died at the countries borders, as far as Ra'uf was aware.

Those thoughts were sad, in a way, to think of how humans had declined so dramatically, and though he enjoyed being able to imagine the glory of humans when they were still at their fullest, it offered bitter contrast when compared to how things were now. Whenever he thought of the world before Pokemon, he ended up in a depression that lasted for hours. They had lost so much, the entire Human race, and become so poor they no longer even understood the scope of their loss. The world was in a slump. Hopefully, one day, it would get out of it.

Then again, Pokemon were not all bad. That was his theory, at least, and though there was nothing to prove it was something that to him was so true that evidence was not required. It was like saying the sky was up. That was not to say he had no proof on the matter. He had seen it, once, all those years ago, been present for the strange circumstance that reinforced his beliefs. It was nothing but a memory now, but it was all that he needed to be assured. Assured, that Pokemon were good at heart, and that he would capture a Misdreavus and never regret the decision.

-- -- --

Near dusk of the second day, the mountain changed.

--


	5. The Mountain Finding

Authors note: My goodness, this took a very long time. To be honost, that i only recieved one review last chapter thoroughly disheartned me, and i found it very hard to find an alternate motivation. I have, though, and this is the product, which i am very happy now to be able to present. I do not have much to say about this chapter, but i really do hope that you al enjoy it. It is important to me, however, that you all remember there is only one way for me to tell if you are enjoying it or not; and that is to tell me. So please, take a few minutes to review near the end. They are trully something wonderful, even when they are just a sentence long.

Aside from that, happy Halloween every body! I was up tell two am last night writing this, and while i had originally hoped to get it out before Halloween night was over, i am very near as happy to post it the morning after. I hope you all have much larger bags of candy than i do, and had a thoroughly frightening night. Cheers to the creepy Holiday of candy and Horrors!

-- -- --

When Ra'uf saw the first hints of sundown in the horizon, heavily obscured by the ever overcast skies, the sight brought with it another, more spectacular revelation. There, in the distance, the mountain broke from its state of incline and flattened, creating the plane he had expected to find the previous day.

According to his plans, he should have been well on his way along the flat ground and its forests, well fed and safe as he tread along to his dream. Instead, he had been disturbed by multiple anomalies, and the idea that he could rely on this hazy image of possible norm along the furthest reaches of where his eyes could perceive seemed like nonsense at this point. Why should he trust that where there appeared to be a bend, the mountain truly transformed? And if it did, what detail, strange and dangerous, was he not anticipating?

Ra'uf approached the bend cautiously.

When he was mere feet from the sudden shift in angle, he hesitated for a second, staring incredulously at this new surprise. Then, his eagerness got the better of him, and he launched himself over the edge with a sudden thrill of excitement. He had exposed his back with the move, and any second now could come that attack he had feared for weeks, sharp talons or long claws the instruments that would render his life from him. Nothing came, however, and in a split second he was on his feet and staring out at the newly flattened ground him.

The sudden weight focused on his feet was unbalancing and threatened to collapse him, but the strange and hideous sight that met his eyes had an even more destabilizing impact. Great, vile plumes of smoke that streamed in torrents from small cracks disfigured the land, giving it a broken and tottering feel. Instead of flat, smooth ground, the elevation shifted dramatically from one point to the next, so that at random points among the hundreds of depressions deep pools had formed. Stinking, viscous liquids with strange discolorations filled them, making the plane seem and smell like it was rotting. Most disturbing of all, however, was the presence of two twin statues, which framed a crumbled wooden bridge.

Ra'uf stared at these in awe and disbelief. The statues were heavily weathered, and though they appeared to have been constructed identical to one another, the effect had been worn away by time. The bridge reflected the architecture of an ancient civilization that he recognized, and knew for a fact had been lost over the ages in the cultural wipe out that had followed Pokemon. The name of the particular culture eluded him, but above the bridge was a still standing wooden post that displayed the foreign language of that same culture, followed by writing that was much more familiar to him. Quietly, Ra'uf read the words aloud, lost in his wonder of them.

" The Osorezan sanctuary..."

It was a title, he realized, licking his dry lips and noting vaguely that that was the first time he had spoken in days. The title of a place that had managed the impossible, and sustained itself over the centuries. An incredible marvel from the past, that had somehow been preserved at thousands of feet above ground.

That settled it, then. This was the strangest mountain in all of Tohoku. A haunted reliquary with volcanic activity near the summit but not at at the base. Perhaps he had made some sort of Karmic blunder in choosing a Ghost for a starter, and would suffer from the strange for the rest of his life. That must surely have been the case, for this was simply unprecedented. The discovery was truly unique.

A particularly large crack in the ground released a pent up plume of sulfurous smoke that erupted noisily, and Ra'uf's revulsion for the sight mingled with his reverence for the statues, tainting his feelings toward the land. No matter what trinkets from the past might pop up, the sight reminded him, the mountain was a death zone, one he would be forced to transverse with nothing but his own wits to rely upon.

But not yet, he thought. Tonight, he was tired, and already the sun had sunk beyond the horizon, so that slight twilight rays were all that illuminated the world for as far as Ra'uf could see. The lighting gave the landscape a distinctly blue overcoat that caused the images to blend into one another, the details blurring where the shadows merged.

Making his way carefully in the poor lighting, Ra'uf headed to the broken bridge, deciding that it would be a particularly good spot to settle for the night. The solid surface would bock the wind, and he could simply run his tarp from a high point upon it to the ground, providing the camp with a sturdy roof. He felt a bit guilty, using a precious relic in such a way, but at the same time he could feel the dull, consuming throb of his fatigue. He was pushing himself to a great many extremes in this endeavor, and rest was more important now than the senseless preserving of a doomed object.

So Ra'uf set up camp, his mind enraptured by the surrealism of his new environment. Combined with the faded lighting, the cold winds, and the unexpected flattening of the incline that had been followed by the emergence of the statues left him with a variety of thought avenues that he yearned to explore. Any time he began down one, however, the others would tug at his mind, so that in the end he found himself thinking of nothing at all.

Shutting down his mind, Ra'uf followed through on the cursory actions of preparing himself for bed. Eager for sleep, he barely felt a twinge of guilt when he pulled loose boards from the bridge to fuel his fire. By the time he had slipped into his sleeping bag, the only thing he could feel was relief.

------

Pain, fresh and searing, tore at him. He lurches, reaching for the pain, searching desperately, and yet it will not be found. _Where is it? He thinks._. Its dark, far to dark to see., and no matter where he turns he cannot find it, the source of this pain. Where was he? What was going on?

Ra'uf's eyes opened, and yet nothing that entered his sights made sense. It was night, not day, the time when he should be waking. His fire was gone, a pile of faintly stirring and crumbling gray ashes, that signaled long hours passed since sleeping. And roaring, pounding in his chest, was the consuming feeling of something, _something_, that was tearing him apart from the inside.

Hunger, he realized, from around the disorienting pain. He had not eaten in two days, and this was hunger that he could feel destroying him from within. And no matter how hard he clutched at his stomach, the pain would not go away, for he had nothing with which to quench it. He had no food.

There was nothing to do then. Briefly tightening his grip, he relaxed his hands and drew them away, the pain never lessening. He had curled in on himself, and now he unfurled, aware at every second at how the pain was simply not lessening. Forcing himself into a normal laying position, Ra'uf resisted the urge to scream, and silenced the twitch of his hands that threatened to throw him back into a whimpering, rocking ball.

Laying there with the never fading pain, Ra'uf forced himself to ignore the sensation and let his entire body relax into the ground. His legs and arms were at bliss, resting as such, and but for his stomach he felt entirely content. For a while, the comfort and the pain divided his senses, waging for the supremacy of his attention. Then, he removed himself from the feeling of either, and soon he had drifted back to sleep.

------

When he awoke the next morning, the pain was still there, but in the form of a dull throb that he found he could ignore. This time, light flooded in from around his tarp, and Ra'uf knew that it was the correct time to be up. IT had surprised him, that night, to wake up to such an intense pain, but fully awake and in control of the sensation, he found it far easier to ignore. By the time he had packed his camp and returned his traveling pack onto its spot on his back, he found hunger altogether absent from the experience.

He had passed the statues on his way to the bridge, last night, and now he turned back to burn the image of them into his memory. While it had originally seemed a pleasant idea, staring at them now they seemed nothing more to him than great, ominous figures. Wind whipped around their crumblings form, and from around their shoulders he could see the sheer drop of the cliff. Though their backs were turned to him, he could envision their oddly complacent faces, screwed up by the intense focus of the inner meditation they depicted. And above them, the back of the billboard that read "The Osorezan Sanctuary".

Except this time, from his new angle, there was writing that had not been visible to him before. Printed in bold letters across the back was a short, three line warning, that Ra'uf squinted to read.

_The Osorezan Sanctuary_

_Hell lies under this Earth, and spirits travel this air_

_Do not disturb the children_

A cold chill wove its way from the back of his head down his spine, and Ra'uf shivered. Turning away from the strange sign, he refocused his sights instead on the misshapen miles of volcanic land. The sight was no less unsettling, with its rusty pools and smoke trails that could be seen curling into sky from behind even the tallest of the protruding boulders. Taking a deep breath, Ra'uf began walking, the mystery of the sign accompanying him at every step.

Spirits travel this air...Perhaps he was close to his goal after all, even though all his expectations had been shattered and carefully drawn plans turned to null. The sign being true wouldn't be all good, though, and Ra'uf certainly hoped the molten mountain did not reveal itself to in fact harbor hell beneath its surface. Ancient cultures had a tendency to exaggerate on superstitions, however, so he was probably alright.

What children, though, was he not to disturb?

------

The answer to that came as Ra'uf walked. The first one he saw appeared to him at first as an illusion, a trick of the eye produced by all of the drifting smoke and twisted rocks. Straining his eyes, however, the illusion failed to reveal itself, and so Ra'uf had decided to pursue the mystery to its core. The figure was hidden at the top of one of the particularly large boulders, and a nearby vent outpoured a thick gray cloud that streamed over its form, obscuring it.

Climbing to the top and approaching the thick pillar or rising gas, the presence of something confirmed itself in his mind. A small, rocky arm was protruding from the smoke, an unmistakably human appendage that was far to thin to belong to an adult. Hesitating for only a second, Ra'uf had swept his arms through the smoke, blowing enough of it away that for a single, clear moment the figure of an all rock child stared back at him. Then, further smoke had risen from below, swallowing the sculpture.

Since then, they had began to pop up in greater numbers, often out in open and clear for the viewing so that Ra'uf had quickly been able to complete his mental image of them. All of the miniature statues were identical, perfectly carved depictions of small, robed children. The arms of the children crossed over the chest, the flesh hidden inside the portion of robes that covered the arms. Heads tilted slightly down, the facial expression had been less intricately created, but reminded Ra'uf heavily of the Buddhas.

Ra'uf could not for the life of him imagine why the children had been created, nor the Buddhas, and had far too little an understanding of past cultures to so much as speculate. All he could figure was, that for whatever reason, the creators had seen fit to sculpt them in numbers. As the miles stretched, so did the population of rock children. Before long, they had become another obstacle to avoid.

The mystery of them pulled at his mind, and had he been on a free schedule he would have liked nothing more than to sit and stare at their every feature, pondering. He needed to keep moving, though, if he wished to reach the summit, and aside from that his stomach pains returned whenever he stayed motionless for too long. And so he resisted the urge, and fell into the habit of ignoring them altogether. No matter how fascinating they might be, they were creepy, as well, and when he allowed himself to get too caught up in their constantly increasing numbers it was paranoia that he would feel, and his mind would wander back to the unsettling message of the sign.

The new requirement forced Ra'uf to balance ignoring his surroundings with vigilance, opposing objectives that clashed on multiple occasions. He would catch sight of a pool, for instance, and then notice that above it was situated one of the statues before turning pointedly to ignore the both of the them. Hunger, then, would begin to gnaw at him, and he would quicken his pace, noting that he should really keep an eye on his surroundings now that the statue was passed. And then look, there would be another life threatening object, perhaps a very sharp rock this time, accompanied by another one of the children. The consistency of it was agitating.

Oddly enough, his battle to ignore the statues but remain otherwise attentive kept him occupied, so that the hours slipped by without his noticing. The sun felt no hotter at noon, several thousand feet off the ground, than it did in the evening, and the solar trail that marked the passing of the day impossible to notice. Directly above it passed, arching slowly from there into the horizon, with Ra'uf all the while to distracted to notice. His absent mindedness only got worse as the time went by, fatigue joining the already long list of things that very effectively stole his attention.

In that manner, the third day passed, and when the sky finally began to transform at sun down Ra'uf noticed the time, as well as the new predicament it presented. All around him was still only miles of smoke pouring from cracks in the earth, depressions filed with moldy looking water and, an uneven distribution of flat and elevated land. When night came, he would have to set up camp, and now he had no plants or wood to burn, no soft ground that he could nail his tarp into, and no where flat to set up camp in the first place. The only positive aspect of his surroundings was that they were still absent of Pokemon.

Scanning his surroundings, Ra'uf eventually spotted what seemed an exceptional spot at which to settle. A bit far off into the distance, as well as deviated from the straight path that Ra'uf had rigidly adhered to, was a high jutting rock that paralleled another, slightly shorter bolder. He could use weights, he mused, to pin his tarp on top of the rocks and over the thin passageway that passed between them, in which he could rest. The rocks would do a good job of protecting him from the cold, harsh wind, and any of the smoke blown around by its shifting patterns. He would be, for the most part, safe.

Decided, Ra'uf spent another twenty minutes approaching the area of his new camp, happily reflecting to himself how lucky he was to have found it. When he arrived at it, he went about setting up camp exactly as he had thought he might, encountering no problems. Weighed down by a handful of loose rocks, the tarp was secured overhead, and his sleeping bag fit evenly in the space provided. When he had already set up camp, however, and was well satisfied with his position, he found its fault.

There, near the front of the space between the boulders, was not one, but a congregation of ten of the disgusting little stone children that kept accosting him at every turn. Standing stock still, Ra'uf stared at it in shock, his arms frozen in mid air and his body half turned towards the unwelcome "guests". Perhaps this was hell, he revised, for where else could such a diabolical form of torture exist?

Forcing himself to look away from the children, Ra'uf could still feel their eyes on his back, and began to mutter angrily to himself about "The children whom he could not disturb but would not, for the love of god, stop disturbing him".

Still, he had set up camp, and there was the usual ache in his limbs that signified a days travel. He would just have to ignore them, he decided, slipping angrily into his sleeping bag. Laying there, however, the anger began to fade, and before long the irritation as well. Instead, rising from the same place in his chest, came the hunger.

Turning over, Ra'uf ignored the cries of his stomach, and eventually found peace in slumber.

-- -- --

A brief encounter with the shadows this time, the pain in his stomach once again the cause. He knew where he was this time, though and the sense helped root his disoriented and tired mind. When he allowed his eyes to open, he perceived only the statues of the Children.

All ten of them were lined up, their carved heads that looked down still managing to seem now as if staring at him. They were taunting him in his sleep, he thought hazily, reaching into his dreams to torment him. They were sadistic creatures, he concluded, closing his eyes and turning over.

And yet the feeling of them there remained, the inexplicable certainty that their eyes were boring into his turned form. He had rolled his eyes and body away from them, but their attention remain fixed, and a chill of terror worked its way up his spine, paralyzing him as it went.

After five minutes, however, nothing happened. This is delirium, was his final thought, before he cleared his mind and relaxed back into unconsciousness.

-- -- --

The next morning Ra'uf thought he might have woken up late, but found it hard to tell from the overcast skies alone. The smoke rose some miles from the ground, ending where the snow took over and extended far back into the gray clouds, so that every inch of the sky served some part in obscuring the sun from him. It was impossible, now, to tell the time clearly. The lighting was still poor, however, so he surmised that it must be earlier in the day.

Ra'uf packed camp quickly and immediately started walking, his stomach to swollen to allow for stretching. The process of leaving passed in a mild fervor, as out of the corner of his eyes he could see the statues that had neighbored him the previous night through, and still they unsettled him. The fresh energy from waking, however, and the agonizing ache in his chest left him feeling rather irrational. As a result, before leaving, he turned to the the small group of antiquated figures and delivered a biting remark.

"Wretched statues!"

He grumbled at them, satisfied with the insult, though they undoubtedly would not take offense. He humored kicking one, briefly, but decided against it. No matter how much they bothered them, they had once held symbolical importance to whoever had crafted them, and Ra'uf wanted to respect whatever their presence commemorated. Immortalized children, it seemed to him, were indeed something that should not be disturbed.

Passing them by, however, was by no means leaving them behind. Even as he turned, a new dispersion of them entered his vision, so that his first step did not come before he had settled his nerves and fortified himself against the sight of them. He was here to catch a Misdreavus, he reminded himself, and a field of stone carved into the likeness of children could not be allowed to daunt him, no matter the size.

The rest of the day once again passed uneventfully. It was a test of his patience, to see the fading horizon duplicate itself endlessly, and a test of his endurance to keep his feet moving against the hunger, nausea, and exhaustion. His muscles, which had initially adapted to the all terrain hiking, had recently begun to lapse under the lack of nourishment. Now, they moved with the same sluggishness that had seeped into them the previous night, after an entires days worth of hiking.

For all the physical discomfort, however, Ra'uf found himself oddly at peace in his mind and spirit. He had long since learned how to relax into the silence, and the hunger helped to distract him from the pessimistic thoughts that might have formed with its absence, so that he found himself watching the hours stream by with no particular change in temperament. Inside, all that mattered was his goal, and his every nerve was bent towards accomplishing it, no matter how many hours of hiking that it might require. Time, it seemed, was no longer part of the equation.

And so the fourth day came to a close at some random time that Ra'uf was unable to identify, and he stumbled into a sitting position. He needed to set up camp, he thought, but did not move. For a while, he allowed himself to rest, and the twilight sky captured his attention. It was fascinating, trying to guess the time, looking through smoke and snow and discern where the glow was strongest amongst the clouds. That's where the sun would be, he knew, and now he could not find the spot.

It had passed over the horizon , then, and he truly did need to force himself up to set up camp. It wasn't safe to sit there as he was, his consciousness urged, and though he knew it to be true found his conviction oddly unwilling to assemble. Finally, though, it became hard to see, and he knew that if he did not set up camp now he would spend the night without one.

Had he taken five years of training just to allow himself to quit, now, when it truly mattered? No, definitely not, he reminded himself, and so dragged his incompliant legs under him and pulled out his sleeping bag. The simple movements left him without energy, though he had not yet set up the precautionary tarp, but it would probably be alright at this point. Nothing living had presented itself to him in the past four days, and he long since established that there was no Pokemon on the mountain. Only stone children were to be found, much older in truth than they were depicted, and they were no threat.

Ra'uf fell asleep the moment he closed his eyes.

-- -- --

Once again his eyes opened to a premature world, which the darkness hid from him. The pain in his stomach had disappeared, he noticed vaguely, but his body felt oddly weighed down. It was night out, but what that meant was harder to be certain of. Perhaps he had simply had another night of poor sleep, or perhaps he had slept the entire day through, and now he would fail because of his laziness.

No time for sleeping, then. That was to much of a risk, when there was no telling how much time he had left. It was time to fall back into his never ending hike, no matter how odd the hour. He must push himself to the brink of his limits, step by agonizing step. There was a wonderful prize at the end, he remembered, one that kept him going, but it was getting hard to visualize it in his mind. Thoughts, too, had become hazy.

Kicking out a leg, however, proved that his motor skills at least were still functioning. Well, he should probably get to walking, then.

Lifting himself off the ground, he felt his body sway tremulously beneath him, but steadied it with the stern application of will. Time to walk now, he thought, and no arguments from angry limbs would change that. Be like my arms, he thought viciously, and quite down. Were far to early on in the walk for wailing. Or like those children, he mused, casting his eyes at the once again multiplied number of the statues. They, at least, were blissfully silent.

It was hard to see in the poor lighting, and Ra'uf found his reaction time dulled into a state of near uselessness. His awareness, too, had proven unreliable. Over and over again, he felt himself stumble over a rock or shuffle headfirst into a boulder. If I had been looking, he would then think, I would most likely have avoided that. Chastised, he would manage to lift his head through conscious effort and avoid the easy obstacles. Minutes later, however, his head would droop, and once again they would become a hindrance.

For an hour he shuffled forward into the darkness in an absent minded sort of trance. At the end of that time, however, an unpleasant encounter brought him back to reality.

Ra'uf's head collided with something, a chaotic something that blew around him and poured itself down his throat when he gasped in surprise. Coughing, he withdrew from the something, and found that he had collided with one of the smoking vents that littered the ground. The foul substance it spewed had been caught in his lungs, and he tried desperately to expel it, his eyes watering from the effort.

His eyes had shut, and he opened them again when he had ceased to cough. His throat burned where the smoke had traveled, a terrible and irritating pain that inflamed his temperament and awakened every ache his body was capable of feeling. His stomach roared from emptiness, and just behind it in intensity screamed his legs. He could feel them shaking, and at various points along their lengths were stinging bruises and dirtied scabs from where he had collided with the rocks. His arms were in a similar state, and everywhere he itched. It was maddening.

What had he done to deserve such a fate as this, starving and itching in the wilderness? Was it his own faulty guidance that had lead him here, into a situation so pitiful that only an amateur such as himself could have caused it? His plans had proved ineffective after only the first day, and now he was lost and alone, nestled thousands of feet along a haunted volcano, whose only redeeming qualities were that Pokemon new better than to live there. Instead, it contained nothing but antiquities.

Gritting his teeth, Ra'uf's eyes shot open, glaring across the even ground in front of him at one of the infernal statues. The Osorezan sanctuary, they had called it, a place they honored for bordering hell. And here, on the fringes of hell, they had for some reason saw fit to enshrine thousands of petrified children. It was absolutely disgusting, he decided.

None of them deserved to be here, trapped in such a terrible place. It was infuriating, having to stare helplessly at their immovable figures. By god, how much he wished they would all simply disappear, and materialize at any other mountain on the planet of their choosing. Anywhere was better than this terrible and baron place!

Every last ounce of Ra'uf's carefully forged and guarded fortitude snapped. It was too much; the pain, the hunger, the children, all of it evidence of what a wonderful job he had done in screwing up. loneliness, hopelessness, and fear festered within him, leaving him despondent. He was lost, with nothing but these statues for company.

And almost certainly delusional, he realized, for the statue he glared at was mocking him.

A pair of great, big eyes were looking up at him from the solid sockets of the child, humor derived from his own discomfort shining upon their surface. They were horribly disproportional to the body, taking up most of the small head, and Ra'uf started backwards when he realized that the purple flesh belonged to something living. Sure of his own insanity, Ra'uf's eyes met those of the statues, which broke into sudden and demented life under the attention.

Narrowing mischievously at him, the large eye balls began moving in impossibly cross eyed circles that made Ra'uf sick just watching . Pausing to glance at him, a cackle rose from the stone lips as the eyes drank in the disturbed expression it had caused to appear on his face, and Ra'uf felt a chill sink into him.

The eyes once again came to life, though this time the eyeballs remained stationary as the pupils began bouncing around within them, dilating and shrinking in as they went. After a minute, the eyes came to a halt, the pupils settling back into their appropriate spot in the middle of the eyeball, though they remained frozen in disproportion. One had frozen very small, while the black of the other filled over the entirety of its purple surroundings.

Then, the eyes moved from their spot on the statue, and Ra'uf leapt back in surprise and horror as they began rolling upwards along the head, the action causing another inexplicable cackle to sound from the unmoving lips. Settling near the top of the statues head, the eyes popped forward at him, the pupils evening out to their normal size, and along the forehead appeared a wickedly grinning mouth.

Ra'uf jolted in horror, and moved forward without thinking, striking out with his bare hands at the vulgar face that had materialized upon the child's head. His fists collided with the stone, creating a new pain to add to his list of grievances and injuries, but the statue got the worst of the blow. The fragile and aged rock crumbled into nothing, the head flying from where it had been struck into shadows in the distance. Replacing it was suspended a giant, purple head, that grinned at him and cackled with that same awful, high pitched glee.

Bursting free from the neck, the purple creature floated into the air, its dark and ethereal form nearly indistinguishable from its surroundings, but even in the dark Ra'uf had no trouble recognizing the creature; He had found his Misdreavus.

The now identified ghost turned to him, sticking out a long and equally purple tongue that stretched several feet from its mouth to the ground before rolling back into place. Grinning at the look of disgust on Ra'uf's face, The Misdreavus broke into a new fit of cackling, overjoyed at the results of its antics. Floating happily backwards onto its back, Ra'uf heard a contented sigh drift from its unnatural mouth as it drifted lazily backwards, apparently very happy.

Time suspended itself as the Misdreavus floated there, and Ra'uf realized in the frozen moments afforded to him that this was it. This was what he had been looking for, right in front of him, in all its lewd and ghostly glory. He had taken an unknown path along a broken trail, but he had found at the very end what he had been looking for. This was his future, bobbing in mid-air before him; all he need do was capture it.

The thought stirred Ra'uf, and he broke off from staring at the Misdreavus roll around in the air to instead swing his backpack around. Tearing at it fervidly, the zipper took longer than normal to release under the clumsy workmanship of his fumbling hands. When it finally opened, his hands shot through the opening, groping madly for the device he would need to capture the unsuspecting Misdreavus. In the pandemonium of his search, the ball fell into and out of his hands several times, and at each slip he glanced nervously at the still preoccupied specter.

Finally, his hands closed securely around the device, and he tore it from the pocket. Pressing it between his forefinger and thumb, he was momentarily distracted as the ball expanded to ten times its normal size, becoming large enough that his fist had trouble closing in around it. Grasping it tightly, Ra'uf moved forward, and took aim to throw.

Seconds later, the ball was airborne, and in another second it had nearly reached its goal. Ra'uf saw to his relief that his aim had been true; He could tell from where he stood that the ball would collide with the Ghost, in just a second now, and he would become a Pokemon Trainer.

And a fraction of a second later, the Misdreavus rose in a violently sudden motion, leaving the Pokeball to rocket beneath it, heading instead to the boulders behind. Ra'uf watched in horror as the ball sped along its new trajectory, anticipating the loud crack of the that would signify the shattering of the Pokeball and his dreams. The collision happened, then, and to Ra'uf's immense relief the Pokeball dropped undamaged to the ground.

The Misdreavus had noticed, however, and it turned on him, glaring. It was an intelligent creature, Ra'uf knew, and while it was perfectly capable of learning that it was a capture device that he had just tossed at it, at the moment all that mattered to the Pokemon was that he had attempted to pelt it. Twisting its features in anger, the Misdreavus began screaming at him, strange garbling sounds that disfigured its face and promised revenge. Turning to the surroundings, the Misdreavus' eyes turned a pale, glowing blue, and a similar light encompassing one of the loose rocks along the ground. A rather large rock, actually, Ra'uf noted anxiously, watching as the blue light propelled it into the air. Then, with sudden and startling precision, the rock launched towards him, forcing Ra'uf to dive hastily to the side.

The Misdreavus giggled vindictively to itself, happily soaking in the sight of Ra'uf's displeasure, and moments later became inspired. Once again its eyes turned blue, and this time a volley of glowing blue pebbles rose into the air before falling in quick succession towards Ra'uf. The large scale assault caught him unawares, and Ra'uf found himself scrambling to get his exhausted body out of the way of the psychic deluge. Some of the larger ones he managed to dodge, but for the most part the torrent of high speed pebbles landed painful connections.

Groaning, Ra'uf felt a final , well aimed rock connect with his forehead, and yelped as the force of it knocked him backward. The Misdreavus, absolutely delighted by the hit, burst into another fit of giggling. Glaring at it, Ra'uf promised himself that he would work on this particular side of the Misdreavus as soon as it was captured. It would have learned to shake hands and roll over, by the time he was done with it.

In the meantime, however, he needed to recover the Pokeball. He was a hairs breadth from his goal, and swift action would close that narrow distance. Throwing himself off the ground, Ra'uf broke into a run, every step landing him closer to the safely ignored Pokeball.

The ball itself had landed on the other side of the Misdreavus, and Ra'uf's course led him directly towards and under the ghost. Misinterpreting his intentions, the Pokemon turned around with a happy shriek and shot off into the opposite direction, perfectly happy to play a game of chase.

Ra'uf realized a moment to late the unintended consequences of his actions. He had initiated a game of tag with the ghost, a game that he would almost surely lose. It was too dark to see much of anything, let alone the ghost, and he was in the poorest physical state of his life. Then again, for the first time in days he had something to motivate him, a fleeing incentive that all his heart yearned to follow. He would capture the Misdreavus, he declared to himself, and with a sudden burst of confidence that doubled his speed began what would surely be a victorious pursuit.

In seconds, Ra'uf was across the small clearing in which the encounter had taken place. The speed at which he was going nearly caused him to miss the Pokeball, but adrenaline and hope were aiding his functions now, and even in the pitch of night and running at high speeds he would not allow himself to blunder. The Pokeball came once again into his hand, and he was off.

Ra'uf found it easier to maneuver about in the dark than he had expected. The faint silhouettes of the rocks provided all the vision he needed to weave through them, and the aches of his body disappeared as he ran. They would return later, he knew, and in greater intensity, but he could accept them then without a problem. It was only in this important moment that the pain could damage him. This was his one chance, and there was no room for failure.

The thought propelled him forward even faster, so that the already hazy rocks blurred as he passed them, and only the fleeing image of the Misdreavus remained clear in his vision.

The Misdreavus moved slower than him, but at the same time lacked the obstacles that Ra'uf contended with, so that it neither gained nor lost distance from him. The fact worried Ra'uf, for if it came to a test of stamina there was no Pokemon in existence that would lose to a human. If he was not gaining on the Misdreavus, than he was already failing in his capture.

Somehow, Ra'uf managed to add additional speed to his run, though it came at an alarming cost of energy. The Misdreavus was only ten feet from him, and if he could narrow that to five he would be safe trying his hand at another capture. His heavy backpack bounced at every step, lashing at his back as the cold morning winds cooled the sweat on his brow, but Ra'uf continued unperturbed, and the distance slowly began to narrow.

...nine feet

...eight feet

...seven feet...

..six feet!...

Ra'uf grasped the Pokeball tighter in his hand and took aim. Then, the ground below him disappeared, and his propulsion sent him careening through the air.

The landing jarred Ra'uf's entire body, but his arms got the worst of it. The thick layers of clothing he was wearing prevented a flesh wound from opening, and his bones withstood the impact. The entirety of his right arm, however, the vital one which he depended on, felt like a wildfire had sprung to life upon it.

His hands and arms had cushioned the fall, and his momentum sent him rolling across the surface. When he came to a halt, Ra'uf tore down his sleeves and stared at his throbbing right arm. As he watched, the entire limb, from the base of the elbow to his wrist, began to discolor. Searing pain accompanied the transformation, and Ra'uf realized that the arm would no longer be able to carry or launch the Pokeball. Then, a second realization drowned out the first; In his fall, he had almost certainly lost the Misdreavus.

Terror and dread stabbed at him, as sharp and discomforting as the bruising along his arm and the wheezing, gasping breaths that sustained him. Another high pitched giggle, however, eased his new found worry. The Misdreavus had returned to gloat, Ra'uf thought in amusement. He had been saved by its vanity. There was still a chance, then...

His heartbeat pulsed painfully in his chest, hastened by his anxiety and the short, powerful breaths that he was feeding it. Similarly, all of his fears, hopes, and ambitions peaked, and Ra'uf boldly shifted the Pokeball from his right to his left hand. He would have to act now, while he could, to turn sharply and use to his advantage the element of surprise. All the Pokeball needed was contact, and the Misdreavus would be his.

Ra'uf turned with an explosion of determination, the landscape flying from the speed of the motion, and his arm reeled back in search of the giggling Misdreavus. Moments later, the determination vanished in an instant, and his hand dropped limply to his side.

Towering nine feet tall and bristling with aggression had appeared an Abomasnow, and floating several feet above its shoulder was the Misdreavus. The giant tree like Pokemon let out a slow, rumbling growl, and the Misdreavus giggled. The conglomeration of emotions that Ra'uf had been feeling earlier simplified; his hope disappeared, his ambition disappeared, and the fear consumed him. He was going to die now, he realized, digested alive by a walking tree as the Misdreavus laughed.

The growl evolved into a roar, and the Abomasnow began its approach.


	6. The Children

_Authors note_

As my most recent reviewer was not signed in, i would like to take a quick moment to say thank you for reviewing. I really appreciate it! I have anoterh two unsigned in reviewers, one from a different story and one from several chapters back, but i would also like to say thank you to both of them. They left wonderful comments that left me feeling very good about myelf and my decicion to become an author.

Wooo! its three thirty six am right now, and i have just completed this chapter, its been a very tiring week for me, and i have not until this point written in this sttory for a number of very good reasons. i have been in a poor place internally for writing is one, and another would be that i must hep my father and step mother to move. That is all over now, however, and so i spent the night writing, and though i have not yet gone over the chapter i am extremely satisfied with the result. It is quite honestly everything i had hoped it would be, as far as my strange and sleep deprived thinking goes right now. Another thing that maeks me happy is that i have a total of four people who have reviewed my story, and i am grateful to each and every one of them for even the smaller bits of criticicm and comment. I do not care about what the qualitty of what you say, only that you say it. it is truly the thought that counts (though for all those who review long out there, please do not be discouraged to do so in here).

So please, help reward my efforts by reading, and do so on an even deeper level by reviewing. That said, i will without further ado present the sixth chapter of "The Pokonomist" and i hope that you all enjoy it.

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Ra'uf had never faced a greater nor more important mystery than the one now staring him down. How was he, a human, to defeat a fully grown Abomasnow through his own sole efforts? Perhaps with a handicap it was possible, but fate had distributed only one, and it had been placed again him. His depleted body refused angrily to move, while the Abomasnow's carried its lethal purpose smoothly and complacently forward.

The Roar of the Abomasnow died out, but the Misdreavus continued in its voracious laughter. From the force of its amusement at his coming demise, he could only wonder if pursuit was a dire offense to its species, for it was the only crime he had committed. Or perhaps he had been blind in his faith of Pokemon goodness, and now was to be cruelly disillusioned. Fate would reveal the answer to him, if he could only survive the encounter. To do so, however, seemed very unlikely.

Still, he had to try. He would suffer an eternity in the afterlife ashamed with himself, if in the final moments of his life he allowed himself to submit to death. No, it was better to fight until the end, and there was always the chance that in doing so he could avoid it. That in mind, Ra'uf chose to ignore the overwhelming odds placed against him and instead thought back to his training. The first rule of any situation, Mr. Gershom had taught him, was to asses it.

Looking around him and remembering the materials in his bag, Ra'uf managed to mentally draw a bleak outline of the mess he had fallen into. The first and most dispiriting things he noted were the tall, sulfur stained boulders that surrounded him and the Abomasnow. Dark, smooth and sheer, they offered little in the way of footholds, and the parting from one to the next was only inches wide. Escape, then, was unlikely.

Whatever fault in reasoning had inspired him to hike in the dead of night, that particular detail had now turned to his advantage. The human eye was a poor receptor of light when compared to most Pokemon's, but his opponent was among the unique few exceptions. Ra'ufs vision in the coming bought would be limited. The Abomasnow's would be nearly useless.

The Abomasnow was rearing closer, but Ra'uf remained focus on his task. Some of the gloom that had been smothering him lifted away at the observation. He had an advantage, and a very good one! The lighting would be pivotal part of his defense. Still, he would not be able to slay the Abomasnow with darkness alone. What else did he have he have available to him that could work as a weapon?

Thinking quickly, for the Abomasnow had now closed half of the distance that separated them, Ra'uf mentally riffled through the contents of his bag. The answer occurred to him almost immediately; the ice pick! The item was dull at this point, but the metal was strong and thing, and with enough force behind it could perhaps pierce through the eyes of the Abomasnow and into its brain. In his study of the Pokemon anatomy he had learned that the eyes, while far harder than a humans, were still the softest part of their bodies. While the knowledge did not give a clear impression of just how hard that meant, it spoke clearly enough that they were where his odds were best.

The Abomasnow moved slowly, even for a creature its size, slowed perhaps by its poor vision. Looking at it closely, however, another explanation came to mind, and Ra'uf felt his likelyood for success rise exponentionally when he confirmed it. The Abomasnow was stumbling in its movements, the footsteps erratic and clumsy. That the creature was abnormally thin by its species standards was the final and conclusive indicator. The Abomasnow, too, was starving.

Satisfied with what he had learned, Ra'uf swung around his backpack, determination once again coursing through his veins. From within it he drew the pokeball, the remote, and the strange stick of of assorted body parts. They would be the tools for his capture of the Misdreavus. For the Abomasnow, he withdrew from its strap the ice pick. Coming to a standing position, Ra'uf tossed the now useless bag off to the side and turned to face the Abomasnow, the ice pick aloft in his grip. Staring down the creature, Ra'uf waited in witness of the final few steps of its approach.

At five feets distance from him, The Abomasnow came to a halt, and once again a booming roar issued from the strange crack in its head that formed the mouth. This time, Ra'uf heard more than the threatening sound; he heard the shakiness and desperation in its voice, and with them the sound became unimpressive. Standing to his full height, Ra'uf countered with a scream of his own, that unlike the Abomasnow's did not waver. The sound did as he had hoped, and the great big eyes of the Abomasnow directed themselves at where he had revealed himself to be. A second later the Abomasnow growled in return, and a huge wooden arm came down upon the spot where Ra'uf had moments ago stood to the challenge.

Now, however, he was darting around it, planning and anticipating the battle to come. The Misdreavus would be his first problem, for it possessed better night vision than either he or the Abomasnow. Dashing up to it, Ra'uf paused long enough near its face to watch it recoil slightly in surprise. When it had regained its composure, it immediately lost it again by retorting with the same angry garbling sounds that had amused him before. The creature had quite an attitude really, Ra'uf mused, but he would learn to live with it when the time came. For now, he simply needed it not to interfere. It could be dealt with next.

Ra'uf responded to the crude sounds by screwing up his own face and mimicking the shouts, the actions behind which reminded him so much of a child in the midst of a temper tantrum. Surprised, the Misdreavus once again recoiled, and Ra'uf chose that moment to utilize the first item which he had drawn from the bag. Waving the stick in addition to his shouting, Ra'uf with able to enjoy the brief and rare sight of a terrified Pokemon.

Gasping loudly in fear, The Misdreavus sprang further backwards at the sight of the teddy bear head, feathers, and snake skins. For a moment, it stayed paralyzed by its fear. Then it screamed, and took off in the opposite direction far faster than it had when Ra'uf had been chasing it. Within seconds it had disappeared into the Darkness, but he did not worry over the fact. Before the night was over, its proud and vengeful nature would have prompted its return, and at that time he would be waiting.

The first of his problems had been dealt with, then. Turning, Ra'uf swapped the stick into his useless right hand and took into his left the ice pick. Now, it was time to do the impossible, and slay the Abomasnow. His soon to be victim had turned directions some time ago, and made good ground using the sounds he and the Misdreavus had made as a guide. Each step of its monstrous legs brought it what Ra'uf estimated to be a distance of eight feet, but the speed at which it executed them balanced the movements considerably in his favor.

Staring at its approach, Ra'uf's mind raced for a strategy that could overcome the few factors still playing against him. Leading among them was the Abomasnows height. At nine feet tall, the Pokemon was like a tower before him, at the distant tip of which rested its single weak spot. Without an object to provide him with additional height, the eyes would be safe from him, and no matter how blind nor slow the creature was it would find him if given the time. Even if he avoided it for hours, the sun would sooner or later rise, and Ra'uf would lose his single greatest advantage. It was vital that before that point came to pass, the Abomasnow lay dead before him.

Which meant it was vital that he acted soon. He had no idea what time it was, nor was there any way to discover. Finishing things quickly was the only way to assure he would not run out of time, and to do that Ra'uf would need higher ground. As far as he was aware, only one feature in the area could provide it, and that was the slick, unscalable boulders that ringed the makeshift arena.

As far as Ra'uf could tell, none of the boulders contained foot holds. Climbing them, he deduced, would be a challenge.

The Abomasnow crawled uncertainly towards the spot that Ra'uf had settled to think, for sudden stillness masked his position. Without the clatter of footsteps, Ra'uf realized, the Abomasnow truly was incapable of finding him. Perhaps if he moved slowly and carefully enough that he did not make a sound, he could tip toe unnoticed to one of the boulders. From there, it would be a simple matter of noiselessly feeling out crevices in the rock. By the time he was ready to climb, the Abomasnow would be too far away to prevent him.

Confidant in the idea, Ra'uf shuffled a careful step to the side, intent on the boulders farthest from himself and the Abomasnow's current path. If he could move quickly enough, the Pokemon would walk straight into the wall behind him, leaving it as far as possible from his destination. The moment Ra'uf's foot touched the ground, however, the Abomasnow jolted to a stop, and both its unseeing eyes and massive body homed in on his exact location. Freezing nervously in place, Ra'uf realized that he had underestimated the Pokemon's hearing.

The arms of the Abomasnow rose into an extended position, palms pointed toward him, and Ra'uf recognized immediately what was happening. Abandoning stealth, he darted blindly to the side, intent only on getting as far from where he'd been as possible. Moments later, a flurry of thin white shards crashed into the ground that he had previously occupied, justifying the decision. The ice shard attack, as he recognized it to be, collided into the ground with what sounded to be the force of a rocket, but Ra'uf wasted no time in watching. The racket it had produced drowned out his footfalls, and it was important he gained as much ground as possible in those brief few moments of invisibility.

The attack lasted an extensively long time, allowing Ra'uf to cover a greater distance than he had hoped for. By the time the Abomasnow had ceased fire, he had closed three quarters of the length remaining to the boulders. Responsibly freezing into place, Ra'uf quickly tried to abandon any action that might produce noise, and in the course another terrible and revealing moment realized that he had overlooked something of incredible simplicity; that to move as he did required energy, which he dew from the air around him. Doubling over in order to pant into his knees, the exhaustion that had all this time worked against him in the following moments saved his life.

Finding his legs too tired to carry him, Ra'uf collapsed onto the ground, so that when the Abomasnow turned with another roar and released a new wave of its ice shards they passed harmlessly above him. Aware that even a slight increase in the proximity between himself and the attack would kill him, Ra'uf lay rigidly still and attempted to calm his breathing before it once again had the chance to expose him. Inhaling deeply, Ra'uf forced himself to ignore the chaos above him and focus instead on his fleeting passion. Every five minutes, it seemed, his confidence had fluctuated from brimming to faded, and in the last couple of minutes had dimmed. Once again he revived it, and this time another feeling accompanied it back into life; a strong recklessness, very much like the one that had whispered in his ear to choose Misdreavus. Flush with the prospect of death that awaited him should he only lift his head, the feeling urged him to risk his life even further, to dance along the edge of death through some ridiculous last stunt, such as engaging the Abomasnow in hand-to-hand combat.

No matter how whimsical he felt, however, Ra'uf was adamant to maintain enough sense of mind to survive against the odds. Planning was important, as was thinking before acting, and cunning as useful as either of the other two. Fishing through his mind for something cunning or intelligent, Ra'uf unearthed one of each.

In thinking about the failed ice-shard attack, Ra'uf realized that rather than tearing into himself the shards had torn into the boulder behind him, rendering deep holes in the rock. The result was a surface pockmarked with the footholds that it had previously lacked. If he could only find away to reroute the Abomasnow's attention long enough to reach them, he could overcome his current and most pressing obstacle of height. Thinking of what he could do to cause a distraction awoke the second quality Ra'uf had been reaching for; his cunning.

To find a solution took only moments, and Ra'uf celebrated his newly created plan by enacting it. Reaching carefully down to his foot while taking great pains to keep his legs flat against the ground, so that neither limb might rise into the path of the ice shards, proved difficult. The recklessness that had only in the past few minutes came into being disapproved of the cautionary movements, and urged him to sacrifice safety for speed, so that at each moment he waged mental warfare on his own self-control.

Unlike when it had influenced his choice of starter, however, Ra'uf's inner instinct stood against it, this time aligning itself with reason. Stubbornly refusing to submit, the temptation to throw caution to the wind threatened him throughout the entire process of removing his right shoe and re-extending his leg.

His desire to speed things along, gained much more credibility in his mind when moments later the Ice shard attack came to a halt. Had he taken only moments longer, he realized, the sound of fleece scraping against rock would have drawn a large bulls-eye on his current position. Luck, it seemed, had once again intervened, though this time through a much less ironic means. Feeling a jolt of excitement run through his chest and up his arm as it curved over his head, Ra'uf could barely contain a grin as he tossed the shoe into some far of direction and waited for it to hit the ground.

The still present sounds of the deformed landscape made it hard for him to tell when exactly it did, but the Abomasnow's acute hearing revealed to it the exact moment, and Ra'uf found it far less difficult to hear its resounding roar and the shifting of its massive body into the wrong direction. A jubilant grin spread across his face when moments later he heard the crashing of a third ice shard attack begin, officially opening his pathway to higher ground.

Springing to his feet reminded Ra'uf of the weariness in his limbs, but he felt far to enlivened to take serious notice, and instead focused intensely on closing in the remaining distance to the boulder. A further bounce, unnoticed by the Abomasnow in the din of its attack, fell into his step as the now thoroughly scarred form of the boulder came into sight. To his relief, the scars covered a thorough five feet into the boulders height, at the height of which his own five feet and eleven inches would be sufficient to bring the top of the boulder within arms reach. Very soon, he would stand victoriously upon it, having won a fighting chance at survival.

And exactly as soon as he had imagined it would be, it was, and Ra'uf hoisted himself over the edge of the boulder with a euphoric grunt. Panting heavily through his grin, Ra'uf stayed resting upon his side as the Ice shard attack continued, in wait for its end. He needed a moment to think, now that he had accomplished as much as he had thought to, and the wonderful thing was that he had as much time as he needed now. The Abomasnow would cease its attack, and when it strained its acute ears and useless eyes for any hint of his location, nothing would be revealed to it. And when it decided to start aimlessly searching for him, it would not find him.

He had found sanctuary. He was concealed from and beyond the reach of the Abomasnow; he was safe.

Relaxing back into the ground, Ra'uf took the opportunity to roll several feet away from the cliffs edge while the ice-shard attack could still hide the movement. Exactly how much time passed before the Abomasnow stopped attacking and began its steady approach to inspect where it thought to be the meal that was his course, Ra'uf had no care to measure. Content where he was, he focused his brain power instead to developing a new plan that would accommodate his advantage. The great crash of the Abomasnow's footsteps, the first of which shook even the boulder on which he lay, inspired one.

It was still a pivotal point that he move without attracting the attention of the Abomasnow, and if he could blend each of his footsteps in with that of the Abomasnow's the noise he caused would once again be drowned out. The ratio of distance covered, however, would be greatly in the Abomasnow's favor, as each of its strides reeled in a full seven feet more than his own. Glancing over the edge of the cliff, Ra'uf squinted to see where his boot and landed and where the the Abomasnow would therefore be headed. It was hard to tell in the dark, but it appeared that he had thrown it into the middle of the natural arena.

As that was where the Abomasnow was headed, it seemed that very soon it would be beyond his reach. If he wanted to finish it, he would need to once again attract its attention, and this time to a spot directly below the cliff face of one of the boulders. From there, as long as the Abomasnow remained unaware of his true location, he would be free to strike a killing blow.

As much as the idea of killing the Abomasnow unnerved him, there was simply no other choice. The Misdreavus could return at any moment, and if it chose to direct its fellow Pokemon at him using its superior eyesight he would not survive long. To try and escape, on the other hand, by going one step at a time in sync with the Abomasnow's own, would land him barely a hundred feet from the arena before sunrise, at which time it would be even more consequential when the Misdreavus returned. The Killing was something he would have to do now, while the chance was raw and present, and the advantage still on his side.

Grim determination running through his veins, Ra'uf waited for another crashing footstep before lifting himself to his feet. The lopsided height caused by having one boot on and the other off was not something that he had to bear long, as with the next step he removed his second shoe, causing it too to be exposed to the freezing airs of the elevation and strange warmth of the smooth, volcanic ground. Opting to not wait for a third, Ra'uf estimated took into brief account the difference between how much ground both he and the Abomasnow could cover in a given period of time, and then launched his second shoe what he then deemed an appropriate distance away.

Bouncing accurately into place, Ra'uf let the wind brustle against his still form, and watched for the Abomasnow's reaction.

The Pokemon did much as he had expected to do, though escalated slightly by a rising level of irritation. It made sense that it would be angry when he thought about, for the delicious snack which it had just thought to have claimed had turned out to be nothing more than rubbery boot. In addition, no Pokemon alive enjoyed seeing a skill it possessed outdone, and intelligence was of particular pride, no matter how intelligent the Pokemon in question might actually be. As a result, the Abomasnow turned with a growl rather than a roar, and proceeded personally towards the new disturbance without launching a fourth volley.

With a slight chill, Ra'uf realized that it no longer desired merely his death, but that he suffer beforehand. If events still somehow managed to go bad, he had earned himself an agonizing end that could be defined by any one of the very many capabilities a Pokemon possessed. It could freeze him, crush him, rip him into parts, or simply ingrain its roots into his body and feed off his insides, as well as any creative combination of the above. Despite being more secure where he currently stood than he had been for the entire encounter, Ra'uf found himself growing steadily more nervous with each step that brought him and the Abomasnow closer together. The feeling was not entirely attributable to fear, though; for each step that brought Ra'uf closer to the Abomasnow brought him closer to his impending murder of another intelligent being.

Gripping the ice pick firmly in his hands to outlet his anxiety and steel himself for the task ahead, Ra'uf forced himself to continue. By the tenth step, Ra'uf realized how truly accurate his throw had been. By the eleventh, Ra'uf was standing directly above his boot, and the Abomasnow was merely another eight foot step away. On the twelfth, the Abomasnow landed directly before him, and all that was left to do was strike.

Breathing in only a shallow breath for support, for a larger one would give away his position, Ra'uf lifted his ice pick and swung. Moments later it collided with the eye, and penetrated the surface surface. It was far harder, Ra'uf realized in that moment, then he had ever imagined an eye could be. A final second later, the ice pick stopped moving, and both the Abomasnow and Ra'uf stood still. Then, simultaneously, they reacted.

Horror and disbelief sprang to life within Ra'uf as he watched the Abomasnow jerk away from him, thrashing its enormous wooden arms along with the entirety of its body, causing the icepick, which had embedded itself barely half of an inch into its eye, to flail about with it. Ra'uf could only feel the gravity of his failure pressing in on him; he had swung the ice pick, with as much strength and precision as he possessed, and it had collided with what felt like iron Jello. He had only pierced a fourth of the way through it before it had absorbed his momentum, and a repeat attempt would yield little more than what he had already seen. He was out of options, and his single weapon lay sheathed beyond his grasp.

It was impossible for him to kill the Abomasnow. The only thing left to do was flee.

Watching the Abomasnow flail around for another moment, Ra'uf found himself rooted to the spot with dread. Slowly, he made to turn, when the Abomasnow turned sharply toward him. Growling with more bristling intensity than Ra'uf had ever thought a living creature could display, the Abomasnow ceased its thrashing and turned both of its eyes to glare at him.

Reaching one of its tremendous arms up to its face, Ra'uf paled as he watched it grasp the icepick between its root like fingers, and with a single sharp movement withdraw it from its eye. No additional hints of pain appeared upon its features, and seconds later it closed its fist around the ice-pick. When it opened it again a cloud of splinters burst free, followed by a tiny lump of twisted and dented metal. Overturning its palm, Ra'uf watched as what had once been his ice-pick dropped with agonizing slowness to the ground.

The thump of it landing seemed strangely emphasized to Ra'uf, and moments later he realized the reason why. It was his cue to leave. Blinking out of his stillness, Ra'uf turned and did as he felt the sound had suggested and ran. Moments later, the rumbling growl that had been emanating from the Abomasnow fell another octave lower and rose dramatically in volume. Before he had made it so much as ten feet in the opposite direction, a loud and terrible sound, that was otherwise indescribable, rose from behind him. Upon turning to glance over his shoulder, Ra'uf found that an equally horrific sight was the cause of it.

Literally drilling into the stone with its root like appendages, the Abomasnow had rooted itself firmly into the rock, and as he watched used the enormous strength at its disposal to lift itself off of the ground and onto the boulder. The entire process took no more than ten seconds, and the moment it was back on its feet it released its hold on the rock and then comensed to chase to Ra'uf.

Whatever advantage he had thought his superior speed would give him was quickly overshadowed by the one that his enemy presented; lifting its palms as it ran, the Abomasnow released another attack, though this time of a different variety. An incredibly cold gust of wind and snow blew over Ra'uf, causing a thick layer of frost to form over his clothing and his feet to wither under the blunt of the assault. Unguarded as they were, it felt to Ra'uf like they had been suddenly plunged into the icy water found beneath a frozen lakes surface. The feeling helped to soothe the aches and pains that had formed in them over the past couple of days of travel, but the overall lack of feeling concerned him. The icy-snow attack, which it seemed to be , was perfectly capable of causing frostbite to his flesh, but the overall side-effect of the attack was far more pressing. Icy-snow was designed to cut the speed of its recipient.

And to that effect, it was succeeding fantastically. Each second that wore on in which the attack continue Ra'uf's number feet were forced to slow, and each second he felt himself falling more and more in danger of the Abomasnow. Very soon now, he knew, it would be able to reach him, simply pluck his pathetically sluggish form from the ground. What followed would be an excruciating death, and a bitter start to either an eternity in the afterlife or his dissipating into nothingness. It was best to avoid all three possible forms of torture, if possible, but the Abomasnow's gain promised his suffering of at least two.

Perhaps the only thing that could again save him chose that moment to strike, and Ra'uf blessed whatever had earned him his good fortune that day with luck. The boulder that the chase had been staged on up to that point ended, and Ra'uf leapt from it onto the ground and transitioned smoothly back into a run. The Abomasnow, however, required itself to cease its attack and come to a full stop before engaging in the short jump from the boulder to the ground, and then struggle to regain its momentum. In the time the lapse afforded him, Ra'uf pulled significantly ahead.

Before long, however, the Abomasnow was back on his tail. This time, though, no attacks spewed forth from it, causing Ra'uf to glance curiously over his shoulder. What he saw was the reappearance of a detail that had long since fallen from his attention; that the Abomasnow had as well been starving. Now little more than limping through gigantic steps in pursuit of him, it seemed that the tables should finally have turned fully in Ra'uf's favor. When Ra'uf urged his own body to pick up speed, however, he found it to be no better off than the Abomasnow's. Each step required the careful management of his will in order to come about, and in all areas his body suffered pains of various intensities. The hunger in his stomach, the aching in his legs, and the burning of his right arm were the most significant.

The mutual exhaustion and weariness of Ra'uf and the Abomasnow turned the chase into a battle of stamina and endurance, and his thoughts from earlier echoed through his mind, filling him with cold dread. _If it came to a test of stamina there was no Pokemon in existence that would lose to a human. _It was simple fact, and the fact that it was simple fact was what destroyed him. In the following moments of the chase, Ra'uf realized with clarity that he was going to die. It was unavoidable, at this point, and no amount of determination or innovation on his own part would save him. It was simple fact.

Unless...

The landscape had shifted into something very different than the original staging of Ra'uf's and the Abomasnow's confrontation during the chase. Rather than a barren stone arena, only several elongated points of rock, some twenty feet long and flat along the top, jutted from the ground. The most noticeable shift that Ra'uf noticed in his environment, however, as he turned around to face the Abomasnow with the Pokeball in his left hand, was that statues had returned to the edge of his vision. Almost as if to commemorate the event, an impressively large group of about twenty, the thickest he had seen yet, lay in front of one the jutting rocks. It was disturbing in a way, he mused, to be back under the receiving end of there lifeless stares, but oddest of all was that the mere familiarity of it brought comfort to him. The thought caused him to smile.

The Abomasnow stumbled into the clearing, and rather than taking immediate advantage or Ra'uf's stillness bounded ahead of him, placing its massive form directly in his path. It had not given up on its goal to torture him to death then, Ra'uf thought sadly. The large crack that was its mouth grinned at him, the first thing it had done with it other than roar or growl. Then, the creature took a tipsy step forward, and Ra'uf threw the Pokeball at it.

The Pokeball arched with a slowness that reflected the general exhaustion of the scene, but the same exhaustion prevented the Abomasnow from dodging. A strange snap resounded dully around the area after bouncing off the Pokemon's skin, announcing that it had opened, and from within its interior sneaked a red beam that struck the Abomasnow. Ra'uf managed to find it in him to be amazed when the Pokemon turned the same dark red color of the beam and then compress itself into ball just smaller than that of the Pokeball. The red beam, still attached the the ball that had become the Abomasnow, then dragged it in.

The Pokeball landed with a soft clang amongst the particularly thick group of statues that Ra'uf had observed, and then proceeded into the first of the three "wiggles" of capture.

Once the first was over, the ball still had not opened, and Ra'uf resigned himself to his fate. He was capturing a powerful and therefore un-trainable Pokemon straight from the wild. Its sale would give him enough to perhaps settle down within some city, where he could then search for a bottom of the line job to fulfill. That was only considering, of course, the off chance that any trainer powerful enough to be able to train an Abomasnow would not already own six Pokemon. Ra'uf had never heard of such a case.

Ra'uf dully observed the second wiggle, and though he did not have the energy to physically express it he felt an exponential rise of terror and dread at its completion. God, he wanted nothing more then for that Pokeball to open, so that he might be spared the tortuous life that he would be sealed into if it did not. Let it open, and then let him be crushed by the Abomasnow and go to death proud of how to the very last moments he had fought as hard as he could! Anything, but for it to close on the third wiggle, and everything that made life seem promising to him die.

The second wiggle completed and the ball then turned to the right, the initiation of the third wiggle.

And no sooner than it had begun, the Abomasnow burst free from the constraints of the Pokeball and rematerialized in mid-air above the statues. Ra'uf felt a sort of crazed and suicidal joy that managed to break free across his face in the form of a smile as the Pokeball shot off to the side, technically still usable, though it was unlikely the Abomasnow would leave it that way. Then, the Abomasnow plummeted, and the heads and bodies of twenty rock children broke the fall. The moment it hit the ground, the count down to his life would begin. The Aboasnow would rise to its feet and then kill him, slowly and painfully.

What followed instead Ra'uf watched in amazement.

Popping free from the statues remains, one at a time, were ghost Pokemon. Shuppets, Duskulls, Ghastly, Sableyes, and even a couple more Misdreavus gradually took form, but despite the variety of the species present a single disturbing detail unifed their mass. As angry as the Abomasnow appeared to be at having very nearly been captured, the eyes and faces of the Ghost Pokemon were alive with a wrath and rage levels deeper than that of the Ice Pokemons. The promise of death on their face outdid its as well, and Ra'uf realized that the Abomasnow was about to die.

Seeming to have realized that as well, the Abomasnow had time to get in a single defensive strike before it was over. The blow was from his fist, and passed over his head and into the nearest ghastly with all the incredible strength that was its power, then harmlessly through it. The blow hit the ground instead, cracking earth for feet in every direction, and the moment it was over the swarm descended. The sheer number of them caused a thick purple and black cloud to form around the Abomasnow, preventing Ra'uf from seeing what happened beneath it, but the sounds that passed through sugggested terrible things.

When they pulled away, a nine foot tall skeleton of an Abomasnow collapsed unsupported to the ground and shattered in all directions, and the thought returned unbidden to his mind ,"_Do not disturb the Children."_ Then, the ghosts turned to him.

In that moment, Ra'uf realized another very clear thing. Despite what he had just seen, he still wanted nothing more than to capture his Misdreavus, and to do so now would be easy beyond words. All he need do was wait for his Misdreavus to return, for he wanted none of the murderous ones before him, and had admittedly already grown attached to his first choice. So if the option to live and still become the trainer he had always wanted to be was still open to him, than that was what he wanted to do.

The swarm of ghost Pokemon launched itself at him with the same rage that it had displayed before, but Ra'uf did not have the energy to be daunted. All of his energy went into reaching behind his back and drawing forth the snake skin, bird feather, and teddy bear head stick. The moment it rested in his hands, the swarm came to an immediate and complete halt.

The wrath that Ra'uf had witnessed before vanished before his eyes, and for whatever reason what Ra'uf recognized to be mortal fear replaced it. Genuinely concerned for their lives, the Ghost Pokemon turned and fled, wailing inhumane shrieks into the night. As a group, they returned to what Ra'uf now figured to be their host statues, and their final actions left him privy to another amazing sight that started with each ghosts eyes turning a shade of blue or purple, and the same shade appearing around their coressponding statues.

Then, the broken fragments, even those the size of slithers, floated back into their correct and original position. When the process was complete, the group of statues shone a bright blue which seemed to lock the fragments into place, and then it was over. Each of the Ghosts floated back into their own respective children, the only evidence of what had just transpired the shattered skeleton of the Abomasnow and a single pair of glowing purple eyes that glared at him from one of the statues, apparently still suspicious. After a minute of inactivity on Ra'uf's part however, the eyes narrowed threateningly, and then vanished altogether, leaving all the world quite and still.

Ra'uf collected the Pokeball, and then stood standing for thirty minutes, unsure of what to do. After that, he collapsed into a sitting position and stayed that way for another hour. At some point during that time, he realized that what he was doing was waiting for the Misdreavus to return, and so tossed the Ghost warding stick into a direction of which he did not take note. He was tired, he realized then, in the sense that he desired sleep, but he forced himself to stay awake, waiting. After another thirty minutes had passed, the waiting payed off.

Floating cautiously into view came his Misdreavus. It seemed unsure of itself now, and Ra'uf watched in complete stillness from his cross-legged position on the ground as it suspiciously scanned the surroundings for his stick. Finding it quite some distance away from himself, it turned to him with triumph and glee in its eye, and swiftly closed in the distance between Ra'uf and itself. Stopping several feet above and in front of him, it exploded with joy and triumph, posing before him and shouting something akin to "HAH!" in its squeaky, feminine voice.

When Ra'uf did not react, confusion tore it from its triumphant pose. Curiosity replacing the glee, and its moth formed into a quizzical "O" as it leaned a couple more uncertain feet towards Ra'uf. When still he did not react, it leaned even closer, its eyes transfixed on his own, which though were open remained unblinkingly fixed onto something other than itself, seemingly thin air. Closer and closer it leaned, until it was nothing but a few inches from its face, before Ra'uf acted.

Now much to close to his face to see his his arms, it missed altogether what he did next. Watching it from the corner of his eyes, though he did not seem to, Ra'uf took careful aim and then tossed the Pokeball the couple feet from his hands to the Misdreavus. The ball collided with it, and Ra'uf watched a final surprised facial expression sprout into being before it became nothing but translucent red light. The same line of red that connected the Pokeball to the Misdreavus once again reached out to drag it in, and the Pokeball dropped the ground, wiggling.

Ra'uf did not need to watch it wiggle in order to confirm the capture this time. The ball he had brought along with him was a Dark Ball, and the Misdreavus was of a low level; he could tell simply from the quality of its movements, the quality of its decisions and from the array of attacks it had used against him. Nothing but psywave, the attack of a baby Misdreavus, and the mannerisms merely confirmed its age. As he expected, the three wiggles went by quickly and without fail, and when the ball had come to a rest he reached down and took it from the ground.

Holding it tightly in his left hand, Ra'uf realized that he would have to be forcefully removed from the ball for him to release it, for his desire to hold it was greater and stranger than any other he had ever experienced. Keeping the Pokeball firmly in his left hand as he did so, then, he reached into his pocket and withdrew the remote. Lifting the plastic casing with one hand proved more difficult than removing it, but the sun had finally peaked over the horizon, and with the improved lighting to help him he managed. Once it was off, Ra'uf pushed the button, and then collapsed back onto the ground.

The ball still clutched tightly in his hands and the remote left forgotten on the ground, Ra'uf fell instantly to sleep. In just four hours time, that was how a helicopter crew would find him, remarking to themselves in fascination about the multitude of strange statues as they pulled him on board and treated his wounds.


	7. The Two Ceremonies

Authors note: Woohoo!!! is all i can say. That, and sorry. To all of you that care when my story is up-dated, i really am sorry that this one took so long. Im not quite sure what the reason is myself this time, but all i can say is that i have had a very trying last couple of weeks. On the bright side, this may have been the longest wait yet, but this is also the longest chapter so far. In fact, before i started writing this authors note, there was 9,972 words, and im sure that i have already pulled it over into ten thousand.

I received two anonymous reviewers this last chapter, both of which i am extremely appreciative of. To midori yoshi, all i can say is that i am extremely lucky you were in such a good mood, as after reading your review, so was I. To Aussie Wolf, i would like to say thank you for first of all, and then say i am happy that you like the elements in my story which personally inspired me to right it. I am also sorry that there is no detailing of what happened to LAtif on his journey in this chapter, but rest assured it wont remain a mystery for long.

That said, i am now very happy to be able to pull up the curtain and shout, "Wallah! Chapter Seven!" I hope that you all enjoy it, and hope that after you are done enjoying it you leave a review. Now... read!

--- -- --

"Good Morning"

Ra'uf started awake and gazed around for the source of the sound, and for a third time everything that met his eyes bewildered him. White washed walls to the array of humming machines at his bed side. that he had a bed side in itself confused him, as did the many attachments his body seemed to have gained during his sleep. He could see thick bandages coating his arms, that along with the heavy blanket wrapped around him made him feel nauseatingly warm.

The mountain offered no warmth, and yet wherever he was now it smothered him. Additionally, the mountain was not enclosed by walls, and the pleasant sound of his life-long friend Latif had never been carried on its winds.

Turning to the source of the noise with happy bewilderment now, Ra'uf saw the first thing that did indeed make sense. The grinning, damaged looking youth seated a single cot down from him that spoke with his friends voice had either stolen his friends body and countenance or was Latif. As Ra'uf doubted the existence of face stealing technology, he allowed himself to give into the notion that it was his friend staring back at him, and both happiness and relief exploded into being withing him. The nature of the mysterious surroundings became suddenly unimportant, and his lips mimicked the grin on his friend's,

"Ah!Your alive! The Pokemon must not have been hungry this past week!" Ra'uf teased, happy to be able to once again trade harmless insults with his friend. The sheer comfort of the room was overwhelming him, as it was such a stark contrast to the conditions he had been facing when last awake, but he had regained a sense of his surroundings.

He was in the small but capable infirmary of his school, which meant a great number of things that while essentially varied all had the common effect of making him want to leap for joy. Excitement pulsed through him, flushing his cheeks and stretching his grin to the fullest. He had passed!

Clenching his functioning left fist in an attempt to contain his joy, a new and shocking thought came into being. The hard earned possession which should have rested in that fist, effectively preventing his ability to close it, was missing. The creature he had risked his life to capture and store in the tiny device, which should have been resting securely within his grasp, had been taken.

His future, enclosed within the device as effectively as the Misdreavus, had fallen into the hands of a stranger, after he had worked so hard to earn it.

Latif noticed the sudden change in expression on his friends face and knew instantly what had caused it. Chuckling to himself slightly, he made to soothe his friend, noting with slight humor and curiosity how possessive Ra'uf had already grown of his Pokemon.

"Don't worry, Mr. Gershom has all of the Pokeballs stored in a safe place. Apparently, one of schools earlier students attempted to familiarize himself with his Charmander before the graduating ceremony had even begun, and the little monster set fire to half the school before they managed to catch him. Cost the school several hundred thousand in fire damage, and as they don't particularly want to repeat the experience, they decided to have the adults keep guard over the Pokemon until we graduate. Apparently, we can now only burn down large and important buildings once fully graduated."

The sudden paranoia that had afflicted Ra'uf disappeared, causing color to return his his pale face as he relaxed back into his bed frame. That made sense, really, and he could vividly imagine a tiny little lizard running amuck through the school, casting balls of fire in all directions. The thought made him chuckle slightly, but for the most part all he could feel was the sensation of his heart relaxing in relief. The thought of his Misdreavus safe and secure in the care of Mr. Gershom soothed him, and in that moment he realized just how attached he had already become to he Pokemon. The despair of simply having it away from him had closed in around his chest like a pincer, which the soft glow of its secured safety now relieved.

Some day soon, the Misdreavus would become the second friend and companion that he had ever had. Once that was done, life would never again seem bleak, and the entire world would be open to him. He would be rid of loneliness, and have the strength to in time go anywhere that he desired. In the meantime, however, he had a perfectly good companion right across from him, whose silly attempt to sound witty was simply ripe for the outdoing.

"Thats good to know. We are all now officially safe from the prospect of Latif stumbling over a tissue and letting loose a monstrous...Caterpie? Snorlax? Which Pokemon was it that you decided you were most like?"

Latif raised an eyebrow.

"Me? No no no. You, mister mother hen, are obviously far more possessive of your Pokemon than I am. What we are truly safe from is Ra'uf trying to sit on his new "egg" and accidentally triggering the release mechanism of his Pokeball."

Ra'uf choked on the thought, gazing incredulously back at his friend.

"_Mother hen_? I am a Pokemon trainer, and after five years of having my ears bombarded with sadistic lecturing a little bit of sense has finally leaked through. Unlike you, who has nothing on the other end of your ears but empty space, I simply have a very good _trainers_ instinct."

Latif laughed.

"Bak bak bak, you say? Be careful, now, poultry don't do well to get angry. You'll get your feathers all bunched up, and talons work very poorly as combs."

"Your a foul man."

"And you are a fowl."

"Then you are picking on something no where near your own size."

"Hah! You admit it. Next to me, you look sadly small."

"Not at all. In fact, when we stand next to each other, id say I look very good."

"You sad sad chicken, you are deluding yourself."

"I may be deluded, but you are conceited"

"...Thats not true ."

"It is."

"Is not"

"Is indeed"

"I am not at all conceited."

"Conceited just about defines you."

"Now you are just quacking nonsense. Oh, why do I have the misfortune of my only friend being a strange array of Bird qualities!"

Again Ra'uf laughed, but not unkindly

"Because only something as zany as a bird brain could handle the position."

Latif smiled and leaned back into his bed. Crossing his arms behind his head and gazing at Ra'uf through the corners of his eye, he concluded the conversation.

"Than I suppose I am lucky."

The atmosphere of the room felt much friendlier now to both of them, and Ra'uf silently thanked his own fortune in having Latif as friend. Also leaning back into his bed, he sensed that the traditional period of comfortable silence between them would now descend, and welcomed it. As animated as their conversations could become, neither of them had ever quite learned to like talking, and it was in their mutual desire for silence that the depth of their friendship became evident.

Perhaps after a little bit of meditating in his own thoughts Ra'uf would ask the question that was now on the forefront of his mind. Until that time, he would combat the small yet desperate fear that had recently taken root in his heart, and that agitated him with quite yet piercing whispers of "Misdreavus..."

---

Ra'uf found it difficult to track the time, as the room for all of its gadgets and machines lacked one with the purpose of displaying the hour. Thus handicapped, Ra'uf relied on his own poor sense of time to alert him when it had been long enough for him to break the ritual silence. As he had enjoyed every minute of it, however, it seemed unlikely that he had measured it correctly, and much more likely that a parade of it had flown by without his noticing. Considering the speed at which time moved when having fun, Ra'uf suspected it having been closer to an hour when he finally gave voice to his curiosity.

"Hey...Latif?" He said, turning to his friend.

"Hmm?" Latif responded, turning as well.

"What was it that you captured?"

Silence fell once again, and Ra'uf watched in fascination as his friends expression changed. The calm content it had previously embodied contorted, and what appeared in its stead Ra'uf had trouble placing. After a moment of speculating, however, he knew exactly what he was seeing. Shielding. Guarding. Hiding. Latif, for the first time in years, held a secret he was either hesitant or entirely unwilling to share. Why, though, would that secret be his choice of starter?

An uncomfortable stretch of time passed by, in which Ra'uf watched Latif ponder whether or not to answer the question. When it passed, Latif heaved a heavy sigh and moved from a laying position to a to a sitting one, in which the carefully guarded expressions of his face could no longer be viewed. Alarmed, Ra'uf watched in patient silence as his friend continued to debate breaking five years of complete openness and honesty with one another.

Stirring slightly and awkwardly, Latif, having apparently come to his decision, spoke first with a question of his own. "...When you were researching starters, how much time did you spend on the Gh-"

The silent creak of the door opening interrupted Latif, and both he and Ra'uf turned to stare at the far corner in which was situated the entrance. With a final clank the door jerked forward, threatening to crash into the wall before a clumsy arm shot after it, capturing it in the final seconds of its course. Ra'uf flinched at the speed of the movement, impressed by the aptitude displayed in the sudden response and curious as to whom the appendage belonged. Whoever it was had owned amazing relfexes, though perhaps he or she could have found a better time to display them than in the middle of Latifs opening up to him.

Only moments later, the calmly figure of Mr. Gershom followed through with a promptness that suggested a complete disregard for dramatic pause, as well as a complete disregard for whatever he and Latif had been doing before he'd come in. Proceeding to ungracefully cast the door shut behind him, the old teacher made his characteristically slow way into the room, and Ra'uf noticed almost immediately that something was wrong. Curses, mutterings, and other angry noises disguised under a constant, angry growl carried over from Mr. Gershom and triggered warning bells in Ra'uf's mind.

Tact! They blared. You need tact to survive this!

After an awkward several minutes of shuffling across the room, during which neither Ra'uf nor Latif dared to comment their concern or exchange worried glances. They had never expressed particular concern for Mr. Gershom before, and were not quite willing to discover whether his personal well being was a new and dangerous boundary or a harmless and permitted subject for inquiry.

The man had never displayed dangerous levels of undue aggression, so perhaps it was silly of them to restrain themselves, but a certain level of respect played behind it was well. Mr. Gershom had earned his pride from becoming strong; they had no desire to remind him of in what ways he had become weak.

Holding their silence, then, Ra'uf wand Latif waited for him to arrive in front of their beds and turn to them, panting. Spending another series of moments catching his breath, Mr. Gershom finally lifted his eyes in what they saw to be an appraising manner, sweeping over both of their own eyes in turn. Whatever he saw there, his expression softened, and with a grunt he lowered his gaze. When he raised it again to begin talking, something of a smile wavered at the corner of his lips, and Ra'uf felt a burst of inexplicable pride at the sight.

"Heh hem, Hah, the two of you...Ah, your something different. Wonder how in that world that happened. Never quite understood you guys, and now the chance is gone. Hm... maybe if I hadn't needed to spend so much time keeping an eye on the others, I'd know some more, at least, than I do now. Not that i know little, mind you, but i certainly dont know it all.

"I see though, quite a lot in both of you. You've got some rare qualities. Good things to have in this world. But then, I see things, also, that are bad qualities in anybody." The statement floated around the room, and the smile that had moments before sprung into being on Ra'uf's face disappeared. Aside of him, Latif sat up slightly straighter, and the small movement attracted Mr. Gershom's attention. Like a jackal turning on its prey, their old teacher homed in on Latif, and a slow grin spread across his face as his eyes sharpened.

Whatever he had to come to say to them, Ra'uf thought to himself, Latif had just designated himself the first to hear it. Mr. Gershom, however, did not seem to be in a rush. Lowering himself idly backwards onto one of the bunks opposite them, he straightened out his coat and shifted into a more comfortable position before continuing. When he looked up again, Ra'uf saw that the smile had not left his face, and once again the warning bells sounded.

Mr. Gershom continued.

" Huh hem. you Latif, I've watched you for a long time, and I know that you especially are gonna need to be careful out there. Angers a dead end, and afters its finished taking you nowhere you find that nowhere is the home of a great big hole, which is directly beneath you. There's only catching yourself before you fall, or dropping the whole distance down.

"Theres no telling right now how deep that hole will be; you dig it as you go. The more terrible and angry you are, the more hurt and pain that you cause, the more distance thats added to it. By the time that you actually fall down it, it can have become deep enough to kill you.

"And no matter how mad you get at the world, both before and after you've dropped, remember this; That it was you who dug that hole, and that it was you who led yourself in. No one else to scream at, and no one else to blame. There's only you, and you're one heck of a screw up at that point, so not very good company. Heh heh heh...huh-hem. Remember that."

The gaze of Mr. Gershom bore into Latif, burning the message clearly into the depths of his mind. The force of it made even Ra'uf, to whom it was not directed, uncomfortable merely from watching. Latif, who on the other hand faced his teacher gaze straightly with his own, had broken into a cold sweat. Ra'uf could recognize the twitch in his friend's arms as a sign that he wanted nothing more then to escape, but Mr. Gershom's eyes held him, writhing, until his point had been made.

Slowly, meaningfully, their old teacher broke the eye contact, and Ra'uf watched as every muscle in Latif's body relaxed at once, and then wondered at what had just transpired. Was it necessary, warning Latif to give up his anger? He had known his friend for years, and in all that time it was true that anger had burned relentlessly beneath the surface. It was also his experience, however, that the anger had always been perfectly contained. Latif had never been rash when it came to his actions; It was how quickly he came to hate people that had always been his problem. Was that really quite so bad as Mr. Gershom made it sound?

Mr. Gershom continued then, though this time in a considerably kinder tone.

"You see, this is the last chance I will ever have to teach you something important. After this, none of you are my students; you are Pokemon trainers, and a Pokemon trainer is his own teacher. Your own experiences, failed attempts and hard-earned victories are what will show you from this point on how to live. This is my last chance to have an influence, and I plan to use it. So listen up; your lives just might depend on what I am about to tell you. Heh heh heh. Huh hem."

The somberness of Mr. Gershom's tone lightened up in the last sentence, and the usual grin, heavily obscured by a curtain of long black hair, came back into place. Both Ra'uf and Latif listened intently, their bodies rigid as stone as their teacher continued to speak to them in manner that they had never before witnessed. Whatever he was to tell them, his mannerisms alone reinforced its importance, but the words that followed were to prove it.

"The first thing that you should know is that when it comes down to it, I really do know both of you very well, much more so than either of you know me. Shame, as I'm such a rare personality, but that's just how teacher student relationships work. You guys miss out on stuff. Heh heh heh. Huh hem.

"Anyway, I know who you are very well, and I know where you come from better, I think, than you do yourselves. Ill go ahead and warn you; if there's any secrecy between you regarding your pasts, I'm about to completely tear it to shreds. You two are close enough that there shouldn't be, so even if there is, i won't to feel to bad.

" You, Ra'uf, I know come from the Iwate orphanage, and I also know that the place is a complete rat house. You spent nine years of your life there, and exactly one year in the careful arms of your mother and father, who were never identified. Disappeared off the face of the earth, for all anybody knows. Left you a first name, put you in a basket, and then played a particularly irresponsible game of ding-dong-ditch."

Ra'uf swallowed down the lump in his throat, but said nothing. However much it bothered him to hear mentioned, there was no denying the truth of it. Across from him, Latif cast him a curious glance.

"Those nine years, from what I understand, were a bit like your five years here, except no Ra'uf. The other kids were older then you, at first, and when a second batch finally came they turned out to be younger. All of the kids were more or less the same, form what I hear. Either foul little demons that preyed on the others, or the ones who got preyed upon. It never took more than a couple days for the kids to sort themselves into one of those two categories. You, on the other hand, fell somewhere in-between, and it took you quite a while to get their.

"Significantly older than the new batch but, then again, younger than the old one, you were both powerful and weak at the same time. Normally, a kid like you would have become both a bully and a victim, but you did things a little bit differently. Had some fight in you. When the bullies came around and tried to stand you down, you crushed them into the dirt instead. From that point on, the bullies left you alone, but the little guys wanted nothing to do with you either. Neither, I think, did you really want to be part of them at that point.

" The teachers tell me that you avoided everyone for years, and that they in turn avoided you. A scrape here and puppy tussle there, to reinforce your position, but nothing else. Over the years, a lot of those kids got adopted, but your silence destroyed any chance that you might have had in finding a family. When you turned ten and still had not been adopted, the orphanage did as it is forced to do whenever a child gets too old; sell your life off to one of the scum of the sewer jobs which hold skyscraper mortality rates. The last kind thing they did was let you choose which, and you went ahead and picked the worst of them all.

" So they sent you here, and I've worked every day since to make you into the Pokemon trainer that you decided to be."

Silence rang for a moment as the echo of the recounting died down, and still Ra'uf said nothing. What was there to add? Mr. Gershom had said it all. That was his short, pathetic life in a nutshell. He felt revealed, and his throat felt raw from the pain of containing the lump that had formed in it. Across from him he could see that Latif kept his gaze respectively downcast. To everyone but him the knowledge had been old news, and now he sat in a respectful and sympathetic silence, digesting what had just been revealed to him.

What he had not accounted for, perhaps, was how quickly Mr. Gershom planned to put him in the same situation. When the silence had become total, and a brief period in respect for it had passed, the old man continued, and this time it was the life story of Latif that he slowly revealed.

" And you Latif, your life is a bit more of a tragedy. Ra'uf never got off the ground in the first place, but you started off about as high as it gets, and then fell the whole long way down. They told me your story after they first brought you here, and its one of the saddest I've ever heard.

" The beneficiary of extreme riches, the noble son of the successful, that was you. Your parents were some of the finest off merchants in all of Tohoku, and that's saying something, as merchants are about the only people in this broken down world that ever get rich. From the moment you were born to the moment of their death, you lived the sort of life that most in this country are far too poor to imagine. You must have been incredibly spoiled by the time things started looking down.

" The people who brought you here didn't even have to tell me how your parents died. Id heard all about them and their crazy little idea on the news, and I was just impressed enough with their guts that it makes sense they died. Your parents were brave, I don't think anyone can deny that. Or perhaps just greedy beyond reckoning. Either way, what they attempted is something you can be proud to have been a part of.

" Which was a merchant party of one hundred and fifty wagons, traveling from Fukushima to Sendai, a route that is very notoriously known as the Dragons ground. Both of you should recognize that name by now, and know exactly why that was such risky thing for them to do. The Dragons ground is the third longest route in all Tohoku, and the second most dangerous. Only victory Road is more lethal, and it is strictly off limits to merchants.

" The pay check that they saw waiting for them on the other end of that path led them to do what was, therefore, the most dangerous thing they could possibly have attempted, and lead the greatest party of merchants ever recorded through what is both the nesting grounds of the dragon type and home to the ground type. The two most difficult types found wild.

" The whole country heard about the undertaking, but not one person could honestly have said that the outcome was predictable. A joint project, there was enough money floating around from the twenty merchant families involved to hire forty-seven Pokemon trainers, which might just have been another record. Protected in scale to the danger of the mission, your parents began their "Merchants mission".

" As large as they were, hundreds of Pokemon noticed the intrusion, and so most estimate that it was hundreds of Pokemon that in a single and bloody hour tore the entire convoy and everyone in it to pieces. Obviously, your parents died as well, and you, who had been left behind, lost everything. They had brought almost their entire fortune with the caravan, and what remained of it was confiscated by the state.

" At the age of ten yourself, you were already too old to be sent to the Orphanage. The people who had been hired to take care of you on your parents absence talked with the City, and eventually, you faced the same decision as Ra'uf. Funnily enough, you chose the same fools fate Ra'uf did as well. Apparently, ten years old is when everybody loses their common sense. Heh heh heh. Huh hem. "

This time, in the short silence that followed it was Latif who suppressed a lump in his throat and Ra'uf who stared across at his friend. What he had heard shocked him; Ra'uf had never suspected that Latif might come from a rich background. Even at the age of ten, his friend had accepted the shift in social classes with no visible discomfort, and no other hints had been given to him. none, at least, which he had caught on to. Now that he knew, however, he felt terrible for having not been aware of it at the time. Latif had suffered immensely, and in his ignorance he had been able to do nothing. The thought frustrated and saddened him, and he averted his gaze away from his friend in shame.

Outside, the sound of the wind catching leaves drifted through the open window, as did the gentle rays of the morning sunlight. It seemed odd, in Ra'uf's mind, to be stuck in a room with two other partial cripples, discussing painful topics on as beautiful day as the one that carried on around them. The most of his attention, however, went to wondering at the pain his friend must have felt, both then and now.

He had felt pain, too. He had nearly been crushed by it, and so he knew now had Latif. Why had they never talked about this before? What had they been waiting for, to share this with each other? Mr. Gershom had been right to put an end to it. Ra'uf was glad to know, finally, what had sent his friend to join him, and to have known why he had been there to receive him.

For all that had already been said, however, Mr. Gershom was not done.

" And that's your story. Now you both have an idea of how much I know about you from before you even came under my care. The important things, though, those I learned later, when you were under my care. So keep listening. Ive not yet made my point. "

" You see, Ra'uf, and you, Latif, you two are anomalies. Rejects of society, but only because you rejected society first. Your mindset is wrong. Five years of training, and you came out completely skewed. You know everything that your supposed to, but share none of the beliefs that they want you to. You have to understand, you two...The world is not what it looks like, staring out at it here from the very beginning of your experience. There are layers and layers of twisting, manipulating, hiding..._taking_. All of it to take, and just as importantly to keep what they already have, which is everything. Not just about everything or almost everything, but _everything_. Everything that matters, they have it. Its theirs.

" I'm sure you both can guess who it is I am talking about. There's only one force in humanity that has any power right now, and they don't exactly try to hide it. The Pokemon league. We all know that our existence depends on them, but what most of us never discover is just how much power they really have. They are our saviors, our government, the ground beneath our feet which keeps us standing. But they are also liars. It is important to remember that as long as everything in Tohoku stays the way that it is, it is them who have all of the power. And that is all that matters to them; power.

" And the both of you are not under their power, not completely . You are errant minds, arbiters of your own thoughts and will, and so you stand outside of their bubble of control. More than that, though, you are ambitious. You both want to change the world. You Latif, I know exactly what you plan to do, and all I can say to that is remember what I said about hate. As for you, Ra'uf, I have no idea what your planning, but I can see just from looking at you that the plans are there, as well as the drive to carry them out."

A brief pause followed, in which Mr. Gershom sat silently and seemed unlikely to continue. His eyes remained guarded by the thick strands of long black hair draped over them. The only movement in the room was the casual dispersing of his grin, which shrunk from its spot at the corner of his cheeks into a more reserved position. When it had relaxed fully, Mr. Gershom spoke up again, thought this time with both foreboding and finality in his voice.

" Its only fair, I think, that I be the one to teach you this. You'll learn it, of course, much better when the world goes ahead and proves it for me, but as your teacher it is my hope that you understand as much of this right now as you can. The world is brutal, and the people on its throne want to stay there. Change is a threat to them, and whoever carries that threat will become their enemy. I like you both a very great deal, and I hate the Pokemon league with all my heart, so that is why I will go ahead and tell you a little secret. The Pokemon can kill you, a thief on the street can kill you, and there is always the chance that a rock will fall from the sky and kill you. But the Pokemon league will drive a dagger through your heart and burn the corpse, should you cause so much as a ripple.

" Our world is corrupt and broken, and that is exactly how they would like you to leave it. If, however, that does not change how you feel, than good. I don't like things much how they are either, but I am too old now to get involved. I'm retired and they pay me good to stay that way. So I will offer you some advice along with the warning. The Pokemon league may have the power, but that seat of power is open to anyone. At the end of this year is the Pokemon league championship, and at that time the position of Pokemon league champion is up for the taking. If you would like to change the world, I do not want to stop you, but I must tell you to wait. Become strong, get to know your Pokemon, and most importantly of all, stay alive. Show absolutely no hint, to anyone, what you are planing to do. Remain in the shadows for that year and earn your badges, and then reveal yourself in the bright lights of the stadium. Until that time, you must be nothing of notice. "

Ra'uf gawked at his teacher, and Latif stared as if something of particular noteworthiness had zoomed past his head and landed on Mr. Gershom's nose. All that had just been said to them bounced around in Ra'uf's mind, disorienting him, and he swallowed nervously. He felt afraid, he realized, as well as stunned. He had never guessed that Mr. Gershom knew so much, and never imagined so much as half of what had just been told to him.

The Pokemon league had never before held a negative connotation in his mind, but now it seemed evil and corrupt. Every day that he trained his Pokemon in his odd, unique way, he would now feel the threat of the Pokemon league looming over him. As uncomfortable as he had felt about his plans before, the Pokemon league had never before been a part of that discomfort; it changed things entirely. Even if he succeeded, and proved the things he meant to prove, he would still be the enemy of the world. Their would be no safety for him now until he had done exactly as Mr. Gershom had suggested, and become the Pokemon league champion.

But how had Mr. Gershom figured out that Ra'uf planned to be so different? With a jolt of terror, Ra'uf realized that Mr. Gershom had not revealed just how much he had discovered. Not his plans, Mr. Gershom had said, but perhaps he had caught on to his feelings, and those alone would be enough to have him lynched. Then again, if Mr. Gershom had planned to have him killed, he would not have bothered coming to warn them about threats to their life. Maybe not his secrets, but at least Ra'uf himself appeared to be safe.

His own life assured, another thought struck him then; What was Latif's ambition? He knew very well what his own was, and that Latif was an outcast was another thing that he had need not have been told to him. He had never guessed, though, that Latif might have some desire beyond simply becoming a Pokemon trainer fueling him.

Ra'uf found that, despite all he knew about Latif, he had no idea what that desire might be, and his ignorance worried him. Considering what Mr. Gershom had said to Latif in relation to his ambition, Ra'uf could only imagine that it was a foolish or dangerous one. Of all of the qualities that Latif possessed, his anger was the one most capable of inspiring him into acion, and nothing good could possibly come of a vendetta.

He was not given further time to wonder at it, however, for Mr. Gershom did something then that once again returned him to everyone in the rooms attention.

Seeing their expressions, the seriousness melted off of his face, and Mr. Gershom's traditional, mischievous grin returned. Laughing, he hefted himself onto his legs, still leaning heavily onto his cane to make up for the slack caused by his limp. Delighted, apparently, at how promising he had just revealed Ra'uf's and Latif's death to be, he remained particularly jovial all along his way to the door.

When he reached it, however, he came to a sudden halt, and in almost the same moment the laughter died. Placing his palm against the door and leaning into it, as if in sudden need for more support than the cane offered him, Mr. Gershom said one last thing before leaving.

" Ah...i just remembered. Huh-hem. Its been seven days, and and neither Ben nor Alysa have pushed their buttons. Their drop-off points were far from even the nearest city; we are assuming they are dead. Its three P.M right now, and five hours from now their will be a brief ceremony in their honor, followed by the graduation ceremony. Neither of you are so hurt that you cannot move, and Ra'uf, the doctors fed you through a tube. Gather your belongings, all of the things that don't belong to the school and you would like to take with you, and make sure to be at the auditorium by eight. Huh-hem."

-- -- --

Ra'uf and Latif had split up after that, choosing to do as Mr. Gershom had suggested and gather their belongings. Neither of them owned much, and the packing would not take the full five hours, but Ra'uf had been unable to speak with his friend after Mr. Gershoms departure. All that had been told to them had been overwhelming, to the point where Ra'uf had felt numbed by the overload of knowledge and the feelings they invoked.

He had felt fear, both for himself and Latif, wonder at his teacher, curiosity at his friend, shame at his revealed childhood, and by the end of it he had not known quite what to feel. Normally, Latif and himself would have enjoyed something of a companionable silence to work through the difficult emotions, but for the first time in years the silence had turned out to be awkward.

They had learned too much about each other in too short a period in time, and their friendship had been compromised by it. Ra'uf remembered thinking of how, when Mr. Gershom had first started talking about their pasts, he had been grateful to finally overcome the last barrier of secrecy between them. He still was, for the most part, but how they were now was the consequential aftermath of having breached that barrier.

On the side that they had been of it, everything had been comfortable and familiar between them. Now that the barrier had been torn down, however, unfamiliar grounds had spilled through, and everything about their relationship had become rank with it. Even if discussing the most trivial and familiar of things, what they had just learned about would not leave their focus until some time had been allowed to pass, and so they had silently agreed to let it.

Whatever question they had for each other, both Ra'uf and Latif were patient enough to let them wait. It was only their reserved natures that had been irritated, and once the irritation faded they would once again feel comfortable around one another. In the end, their friendship would be stronger and fuller because of it, and it was for that Ra'uf was thankful. The waiting would be harsh, but the results would be rewarding enough that he didn't mind. For now, though, he would have to work through the unease that had come to being in himself, which Ra'uf did by remaining in constant action for all five hours of waiting.

In searching his room, he had found that the only thing that qualified as something he wanted to take with him but didn't belong to the school were his shoes. Mr. Gershom had firmly announced that they were gifts, when they had first been given out. Aside from that, everything down to his clothing had been borrowed or bought explicitly for him, and the buyers had left the impression that the items were only temporarily his.

Already wearing his shoes, and therefore already packed, Ra'uf went ahead and did the only other thing he could think to with his room. Unpacking by the door and sliding the shoes neatly to the side, Ra'uf spent a good hour cleaning every spec he could find, until the room looked cleaner, even, then when it had first been given to him.

A janitor was usually employed for the job, and so he need not have bothered, but it had occured to him this year that the janitors in question would in fact be Alec, John, and Marrissa. Out of sympathy for his failed classmates, Ra'uf made sure that there would be nothing left for them to do. Terrible characters or not, their failure was something that had almost certainly crushed them, and so vengeance no longer tempted him. Karma had delivered them a blow far greater than any he could have delivered, and in truth would have liked to.

For all that they had done to him, he felt more regretful than angry, and revenge had never been very important to him. He would not have survived long at the orphanage if he had been in the habit of repaying wrongs.

When that particular chore was finished, Ra'uf went packed to the door, packed back on his shoes, and walked out into the middle complex. Only a month before, the area had almost been ritually occupied by the others, and sitting there would have been nearly impossible. Now, three of them were busy attending to their janitorial duties, another two had died, and the only one of them to graduate had isolated herself in her room.

Ra'uf felt deeply sorry for her; her poor personality and equally poor development in character over the years could only be hurting her now, when she would be needing more inner fortitude than she had to deal with the death of her close friends. Bereaved, the only remaining girl, whose name was Marietta, had handled the pain in the only way she knew how; by becoming angry.

With her friends, they had all frequently been hurt as a result of being the blunt of the others jokes, and so their collective response to pain had become to brush it off as a joke and respond with a few insults of their own. With no one left to insult, and no where near enough strength of will to simply brush off the death of her friends, she had been left to rage against herself and her surroundings.

Screaming and shouting, muffled by the wall of her room, carried across from the other side of the complex into where Ra'uf had settled himself. That, along with how wrong it felt to be sitting in the same chairs that had always belonged to the others, compelled him to get up again and leave after only moments of sitting.

The complex no longer appealing to him, Ra'uf thought of where else he might go to sit out the time, and only the bathrroom, the kitchen, and perhaps the auditorium came to mind. The auditorium offered little in terms of ways to pass time, and Ra'uf rarely took baths so early in the day, so he decided instead to make for the kitchens.

It was his last day, he reasoned to himself as he walked, and if there was anything that a last day meant it was the ability and _right _to splurge on all of the free food that would fit in his stomach. Suddenly, the kitchen became a very appealing option.

Ra'uf passed the next two hours by testing food combinations so crazy that he would never have attempted them if it was health that he had been aiming for. As it was fun that he had in mind, and perhaps something of a last minute blow to the schools budget, he allowed himself to conduct wacky experiments with absolutely no regard to the ingrediant diversity.

Chips and soda smoothie seemed the best way to start things, and the result was something that Ra'uf took one sip of and then immediately realized to be an abomination. Other such experiments went under similar decelerations, though a few, such as the strangely rewarding combination of milk and ice-cream in the blender, came out surpisingly well.

When two hours had passed and Ra'uf had gained what he imagined to be four pounds, an amount tame compared to how drastically heavy the trash can had surely become, he decided that it was late enough to try and relax with a bath.

When he arrived at the bathroom and turned on the water, it occurred to him that this was the last time he would ever see the immaculately kept surfaces of the room. In that moment he felt a nostalgia for the place that completely surprised him. It was his home, he realized, and five years of his life had been spent within these walls, on these grounds.

This was his bathroom he was abandoning, and the immense value it had always held in his eyes would be staying behind with it. None of these rooms would ever again be as significant as they had been, when he had still lived here. In time, he would forget things, cherished things that he had somehow managed to scrounge amongst all the pain and poverty, and already he was leaving them behind.

The life had created here, he realized, was dying. By eight O' clock, he would walk out into the world, and it would be gone forever.

Somehow, the thought envoked an emotion in him that swelled from his chest and rose all of the way up to his eyes, where he desperately tried to stem the tears. He had never liked crying; to do so had always seeme like the ultimate act of pitying himself, the greatest form of whining about things that could not be changed.

Yet when the tears fell, it was genuine sorrow that pumped them. Overcome, Ra'uf gave up, and allowed himself to mourn things that he had not figured he would miss. He collapsed into the small, flimsy chair that he had made for himself years and years before, and buried his face into his hands. Memories of events and sudden, stabbing remembrances of things that had always been important to him flowed against his will, until he was drowning in the sorrow.

Caught by his emotions, he allowed the faucet to stream steaming hot water into the tub until scalding hot water coated the floor of the bathroom, and he lifted his legs onto the chair to escape it. Occasionally, the anguished shouts of Marietta penetrated the cacophony of the bathroom and became part of the pandemonium within.

-- -- --

At eight O' clock, Ra'uf was in full control of his feelings, and the sorrow existed now only as a dull throb in the background as he stood alongside Ra'uf and Marietta on the Auditorium stage.

Normally, such occasions would be attended in the fanciest, most high-class suits of ones wardrobe. As the casual black shirt that Ra'uf and Latif wore and the normal black dress of Marietta was in truth of the same quality of everything else they owned, the clothing still technically qualified as their best outfits, but to Ra'uf they seemed unimpressive. For the burial ceremony that took place on the stage, however, that they were black was enough.

Ra'uf had read about that, once, about how black as a sign of mourning was one of the oldest surviving traditions of humanity, and to him it made perfect sense. The black that everyone in the room wore as Mr. Gershom walked onto stage, carrying two small candles placed in circular holders, reflected perfectly the mood.

The entire school was there for the ceremony, and for once the sixty or so seats of the auditorium had been filled. Children of different ages, ranging from ten to fourteen, sat amongst the rows, also garbed fully in black. At the end of each row sat that group's teacher, various strangers whom Ra'uf had never met or had the care to meet, and in the front-most row sat the three failed classmate; Alec, John and Marrissa.

Standing at the back of the stage, behind the two tables which individually represented a fallen classmate, was Ra'uf and the other graduates. The three of them observed the ceremony in rigid silence, a form of respecting the dead that had been ingrained in was their moment, they had been taught. Crying, moving, or doing anything at all drew attention away from the dead, and the time was no longer theirs.

Complete silence and complete attention were necessary for the ceremony, and the only exception was a black-robed Mr. Gershom, who carried the first candle to the table on the right and set it there. Turning to face the room, Mr. Gershom uttered aloud the name of that tables student. The usual Huh-hem did not precede the sound.

" Ben." he said, and everyone in the room responded.

" Ben" They spoke back to him, the multitude of their voices making the sound considerably louder than when it had come from Mr. Gershom. Nodding, their old teacher moved slowly on, carrying the other candle in both hands now. When he arrived at the other table, he set the candle down in the center of it, and once again turned to the room.

" Alysa" He said this time.

" Alysa" The room responded, the name issuing out from even Ra'uf and Latif.

The final part of the ceremony began then, in which every individual in the room reflected on their own feelings for the deceased. It was a silly custom, in a way, as in such a public holding only about tenth of people in the room had anything to think about in that time, and only four of them thought of positive things.

Ra'uf tried to assess what he was feeling in that time, and found that it to be regret mixed with sorrow. He regretted now more then ever, when it had become too late, that he had been unable to befriend the two. He also regretted that both of them had had to die before they could accomplish their dreams. Aside from that, he had little to feel. Alysa and Ben had not been a nice part of his life, and as much as he wished things could have been differently, they were not.

Marietta felt the worst of all of them, he knew, but in those moments of silence she did perhaps the first respectable act of her life and bore the pain in silence. When Mr. Gershom raised his head and finished the ceremony by speaking the traditional lines, her reiteration of them was the first sound that she had made during the whole of the mourning, and even when the last syllable faded she did not move.

" Wherever they have gone, our hearts go with them. May it be a good place, the mystery land of death, the realm to which you have been taken. All of us will one day know, and at that time we will not have forgotten you. Ben and Alysa, good bye. When the sequence carries us, we will greet you in happiness. Ben and Alysa, good bye. "

The room repeated the lines, hints of emotion apparent in places, but for the most part the ceremony had been little more than a tedious chore to everyone present. And now that it was over, there was only one more tedious chore to sit through; the graduating ceremony.

The truth of the thought made Ra'uf sad, as well as more than a little guilty. He had been the one in the audience feeling bored every year up until this one, and the shift made him even more ashamed of the fact than he had been when struggling to watch.

Clearing his throat, Mr. Gershom beckoned Ra'uf and the other graduates forward, and together they stood at attention behind him and the two tables. Turning so that his side was to the audience, Mr. Gershom swung one of his arms up to point hand-forward at the three of them.

" Huh-hem. These are the graduates who have survived, and all three of them have earned the right to become Pokemon Trainers. Their studies over the years have been exceptional, and through them they have molded themselves into the type of capable youn adult we can trust to guard humanity. Now, there is only one thing left to do; release them. Heh heh heh. huh-hem.

Reaching into his robe, Mr. Gershom drew from an inner pocket three small Pokeballs, on the front of each had been emblazoned a different symbol. Flashing them briefly at Ra'uf and the others, he began walked with them to the front of the stage, where he then set them down side-by-side and so that the marks faced the graduates rather than the audience. turning away from them and walking the short distance back to the students, he once again began speaking.

" Contained in those three Pokeballs is the Pokemon that these three have earned. Right now, that is the only thing they possess, aside from the shoes on their feet. Huh-hem. They are everything to them. Through these, they will gain everything they need to survive, including more Pokemon, and maybe even fame. Power, too, can come to them through these Poke-balls and the Pokemon contained within them.

" On each Pokeball is a mark, and each mark is an entirely unique symbol that belongs to one of the three trainers before me. I will give you your trainer ID cards, one at a time, on which will be one of the three symbols reflected on the Pokeballs. That symbol is a sign of ownership, and will rom now officially be equated with yourselves; they are the symbols of you as a trainer, and you only. Well, some times we recycle symbols that used to belong to the dead, but that usually does not cause a confliction. Heh heh heh. Huh-hem. "

The rest of the school, apparently, agreed with Ra'uf and Latif in that Mr. Gershom's humor was distasteful, and the only chuckling in the room remained that of Mr. Gershom's. Huffing angrily at their poor response, he indignantly shifted his robs and glared out at the audience, before turning to the first of the three graduates, Marietta. Once again he reached within his jacket pocket, though this time he drew from within it a thin, metal card. On it appeared a picture of Marietta, and next to that a thumb-print which Ra'uf assumed also to be Marietta's had been engraved on the metal. Accepting it gratefully, Marietta strode boldly forward and took the Pokeball in the middle, on which was the same swirl like symbol as had been engraved on her card.

That done, she returned to her spot amongst the graduates, and Mr. Gershom moved on to the second of the graduates. Taking the second of the three metal cards that rested in his hand, he passed the item to Latif, who accepted it gratefully and looked to see which mark that had been made his own. Finding it, he walked forward with barely contained eagerness in his step and took the Pokeball on the far right, on which was the symbol of a red and yellow leaf surrounded by green flames.

Gripping the Pokeball tightly in his hands, he returned to his spot on the far right of the three graduates.

Smiling now, Mr. Gershom advanced to Ra'uf, and Ra'uf found himself grinning back despite himself. The card he had received depicted a giant pillar of stone, which reminded him of the Sea-Jutting Peak and had been drawn so as to appear to stretch far into the distance. Around it, thin streaks in the metal meant to be wind beat wildly against it, and from the back were waves which crashed with devastating force against the stone, but none of it had so much as the tiniest effect on the pillar

A funny thought followed, in which he noticed that both the wave and the wind had been broken cleanly in half by the stone, whilst it remained undamaged by their ferocity.

Letting the hand carrying the card fall limply to his side, Ra'uf walked forward to receive the Pokeball on the far left, the one only remaining one of the initial three and which mirrored the symbol of the stone. Gripping it firmly in his hand, Ra'uf once again experienced the sensation of never again wanting to let the ball out of his sight. Through its red and white surface he imagined his Misdreavus sleeping peacefully within, and the feeling increased twicefold.

Grinning, Ra'uf turned around and walked back into place.

When he turned around again, Mr. Gershom let out a barking sort of laughter and brought his hands together in a single, exaggerated clap. Before long, the entire room had followed suit and erupted into applause, and all three of the graduates bowed. Ra'uf felt elated, happier than he had perhaps ever been, as well as excited. He wanted to go now and begin his adventure! To exit those doors, and contrary to how he felt only hours before to never again walk through them, for he could feel the wide world open and waiting for him on the other side.

Sensing how Ra'uf felt, perhaps, Mr. Gershom wasted no time in imparting the schools final gift to Ra'uf and the other graduates. Reaching into a third pocket of the long black robes he had adopted for the occasion, he withdrew from it an amount of thirty thousand and distributed evenly amongst the graduates. When each held their share of the money in their hands, he stood before the three of them and a grin of pure pride spread across his face. Taming it down to a thin smile, a look of acceptance followed, and he nodded his head once in the direction of the door.

" That way to freedom, you bunch. At the gates is waiting three bags, full of equipment, that have your symbols on them. Take yours, throw it over your shoulder, and get out of here. You've got better things to be doing now. Get!"He said, and the three of them got. Ra'uf lost sight of what the other two had done; Latif he saw last walking calmly towards the exit with a huge smile on his face, and Marietta had stopped to first hug Mr. Gershom.

Rather than do either, he sprinted down the isles and out of the doors, and tossed himself exlosively through them. Keeping the pace, Ra'uf made his way from the auditorium and past the complex, weaving his way to the front gate, where he picked up his bag without stopping and for the first time in five years threw open the gates of the school. This time, only one creature accompanied him through it, and together they would become Pokemon and Trainer.


	8. The Trainer and his Misdreavus

Authors Note: Hello! Welcome to the eight chapter of The Pokonomist, which i deliver now after a shamingly lengthy wait. This month was finals, however, and between worrying about schools and worrying much harder about difficulties at home, i had neither the time nor energy for writing. In fact, much of this chapter came into being through sheer force of will, for i have continued to be exhausted all the way into this week. I have also developed an unfortunate sleep schedule, in which i go to bed at three and wake up around noon.

My last chapter received a sadly small number of reviews. There were errors within it than i would have liked, and perhaps that is part of the reason, but I was still slightly disappointed. As i have mentioned before, i write this in the hopes that many of you out there will enjoy reading it, and the only way for me to know if i have accomplished that is if you tell me. I find lots of joy in simply writing, but what truly makes it worth it for me is knowing that i have interested you. If you have liked this enough to take the time to read all the way up to this, the eight chapter, please leave even the smallest of reviews to signify that.

Additionally, on a personal note, i would like to say sorry to Siran774 for not responding to your PM. You've been a wonderful reviewer, and i truly do not mean to be rude. I do not have much of an excuse, only that it hasn't been the best time for talking to you lately, so i can only really say sorry.

That said, here is chapter eight, which after hours and hours of hard work i now present to you. May you find joy in reading it, and then perhaps be fortunate enough to find the little review button at the bottom when you have finished. If you have no critiques to give me, know i would be happy reading nothing more than "I think this is a wonderful story".

-- -- --

The first steps Ra'uf took into the world carried him into parts of Iwate he had never before visited on his own, and so every last discoverable feature of the unknown city fascinated him. It was frustrating, then, that the night was so effectively dark.

The Pokemon trainers school had meant it to be that way, Ra'uf knew, and he could understand the reasoning behind the longstanding tradition. The founders of the school had recognized, in their own words, that every chapter ends with a conclusion, just as every chapter begins with a shift in direction that signifies the new.

Therefore, It was incorrect to allow the conclusion of the students education, the graduation, to occur on the same day that began the once-students foray into trainer-hood.

To prevent this, graduation took place at night, on the day of the new moon, and on the 365th day of the year. Thus, the day of his graduation was in every way a conclusion. The day, the month, the year, and his apprenticeship, were all at an end. Similarity, the following morning would begin a new day, a new month, a new year, and all of which would dawn alongside a new era in his life.

With nothing to shine in the sky, the world around Ra'uf remained hidden to him, and the sight of miles upon miles of shadows did nothing to quench his imagination. He wondered constantly what he would see, were it any other more light-imbued day of the month. Or, for that matter, if the fog would lift enough to allow in whatever moonlight that might have existed.

As it was, thick fog had rolled in from the sea, and completely obscured all the mysteries Ra'uf had hoped to at least have a glimpse of that night. Additionally, the city, which succumbed this one night of the year to the demands of the Trainers School, had dimmed the street lights to such a degree that only the cement roads could be lit by them. It was all part of a cruel scheme to block his vision until the following day.

Ra'uf did not allow this to stem his enthusiasm. The mystery of his surroundings only worked to intrigue him more, so that he looked forward to the following day with a vigor that added a skip to his step. It seemed to him that he was walking towards that day, that every step bounded him into the propitious future. He looked forward to arriving.

Haste could only help, he knew, and so it was at a sprint that he proceeded through the cold night.

The ground flew by him, but Ra'uf tried his best to keep track of it. It was a habit he would need to get into, keeping an eye out for danger, and right now he was in greatest danger of tripping upon one of the many discarded items or breaks in the ground.

The validity of the threat of stumbling had long ago been confirmed; not ten feet passed without the appearance of some form of litter. It was perhaps the only changing detail of the landscape. But for the variety of trash and cracks in the cement, the path that Ra'uf followed remained identical to that of the ground passed, so that it was difficult to assess just how much distance had been gained.

Ten minutes passed in this way, and through it all Ra'uf's right hand remained firmly clutched to the item in his pocket. The Pokeball of Misdreavus shrunk to no bigger than a marble when not in use, allowing Ra'uf to roll its small form between his thumb and forefinger and draw comfort from its continued presence.

It was an odd device; Ra'uf clearly remembered it as being cold to the touch at first, before it had contained within it his starter. Now, heat exuded from the surface in warming waves, like the gentle touch of sunlight in the mid-afternoon, which so easily induced the overwhelming desire to curl up in its rays. Ra'uf rather liked the change; it made him feel like it was his Misdreavus that he touched, and not the metal surface of its cage.

Ra'uf felt no incentive to lighten his grip on the Pokeball, even as at the end of those ten minutes a building slowly appeared out of the darkness, breaking the seemingly endless cycle of concrete pouring in from the distance. The building itself was a simple structure, with brown walls that stretched to a height of four stories and ran for a length of approximately sixty feet, and yet Ra'uf marveled at it.

It was the first hotel Ra'uf had seen, close up, since his short drive from the orphanage to the Trainers School. It would be the first hotel, also, that he had ever spent the night in. He wondered what the interior would be like. The school would be sponsoring this first night, as another gift of good will, so chances are his room would be more like a dungeon than a suit. But perhaps he could hold high hopes for the lobby, then. Surely it would be cozy and decorative.

Ra'uf hoped so, to a degree. The idea of wealth attracted him, but not in a begrudging sort of way. Ra'uf was accustomed to poverty, which had been more noticeable in the orphanage than it had been in the relatively accommodating conditions of the Trainers School, and had long ago made peace with his situation. He was comfortable with hard beds and cold rooms.

He did not long for wealth, and so it was not envy that Ra'uf planned to feed in staring at all the expensive things he hoped to find, but curiosity. He wondered with a detached interest what wealth, which he did not desire and had never had, looked like. Would the walls come to life if you clapped your hands, flashing brilliant colors of light while robotic butlers offered delicately proportioned cups of champagne? Ra'uf doubted it, but what, then? What should he expect? Ra'uf wondered, and all that he imagined excited him.

Then again, he thought of wealth daunted Ra'uf as well. Of all of the skills he had been carefully trained in at the Trainers School, social etiquette was not one of them. It was perhaps one of the reasons Trainers became such social outcasts; Ra'uf had no idea what the world was like. He had a basic understanding of things; he knew, for instance, that "thank you" was said after even the slightest kind or polite deed. Ra'uf had a very good grasp of the standard, formal way to act in the world.

It was the non-standard, informal way of behaving that Ra'uf was foreign to, the things that were not taught but people learned nonetheless. What slang did the people use? Did they have an accent? What did people like, and what did they dislike? What things did everybody know that Ra'uf did not? It was impossible to guess. There were things that would be built into everybody but him; Ra'uf expected this, but it was impossible to predict what, impossible to prepare for it. He would have to stumble in and find out for himself, through painstaking and surely embarrassing experiences, all of these basic things.

And so wealth intimidated Ra'uf, for he had no idea what was the appropriate reaction to wealth. Were there certain words in his vocabulary that he would do best to avoid using around the rich? Was it even OK for him to stare at the wealthy decorations? Did they mind, if there was a couch, that he sit upon it? Ra'uf had no idea, but he was confidant that this would be more consequential with the upper class than the lower.

He had formed a vivid image of plush snobs with ridiculously fluffy overcoats in concern to the upper class, and the people in Ra'uf's image were not the sort he would want to cross paths would, and especially not the sort he would like to offend. So it was with equal degrees of curiosity and caution that Ra'uf walked up to the gigantic wooden entrance to the hotel, on which was a proportionally large metal knocker. Ra'uf lifted the knocker and struck with it twice, then waited for someone within to respond to the sound.

He did not have to wait long. Seconds later, the sound of rapid foot steps carried through the door, followed by the clanking and chinking of locks being removed. Ra'uf wondered at the reasoning behind having what sounded to be numerous locks and barricades safeguarding the door, when whoever was on the other side did not even bother to open the eye-hole and make sure that it was not some crook on the other side. It seemed a poor upholding of security.

When the door opened, however, Ra'uf's disapproval of the seemingly inconsistent security vanished. The man that came into view was middle aged and thin, with pure white hair and a light layering of stubble. He was dressed in a pleasant, dark blue suit, that blended professional with informal and yet managed to retain its classiness while at the same time seeming moderate. Most prominently, however, was that the man possessed a long barreled shotgun, which had been aimed directly at Ra'uf, and was held in such a way that suggested it was cocked and ready to fire.

Instantly, Ra'uf's hands shot from by his side to above his head, where they would be in no danger of having their intent misinterpreted.

Ra'uf paled in the face of the firearm, something that alongside his discomfort at being on the other end of, he held a professional distaste for. Pokemon trainers generally frowned upon all forms of aggressive technology. Against Pokemon, they knew, guns, and usually even missiles, were quite useless. And as aiming them at Pokemon was an entirely pointless act, that left only one recipient against whom to bare them; humans.

Ra'uf knew the exact statistics for gun related deaths and crime by heart, and would never forget them. Seventy percent of crimes were carried out with a fire-arm, and eighty percent of civilian murders. Ra'uf had, through these numbers, formed a bias against guns. He felt, as most trainers did, that the only power humanity needed was that of the Pokemon Trainers and their Pokemon, and that guns served as nothing but a lethal excess.

A lethal excess which had been turned against himself. Ra'uf liked that aspect of guns least of all; Facing off against Pokemon day after day, it would be the shame of his life to die, helpless, because of a bullet. It seemed an unfair prospect, that there was any way to die in his profession except through Pokemon related causes.

" Hello. Good evening. Please present proof that you are a trainer. They are the only customers we will be accepting tonight. And quickly, yeah? I have slippy fingers, you see, and you probably wouldn't enjoy a slip."

The man said, his voice low and, as Ra'uf had feared it would be, coated by a heavy accent. Students of the Pokemon School quickly picked up on an exclusively bland way of speaking, and Ra'uf had been warned about how outsiders would pick up on it and be able to tell from his voice alone that he was a Pokemon trainer. If the rest of the city shared the man's accent, than Ra'uf could expect to henceforth be instantly identified as strange and foreign, a characteristic that would incite natural unfriendliness from the citizenry. That was something to worry about, later, though. As it was, the man with the fire-power and slippery fingers concerned him most.

Ra'uf, not quite sure what to say, and having developed almost no social skills otherwise, stammered out a response.

" Eh...One moment. Its in my pocket." He said, and slowly brought his hands down from above his head to his pocket, in which rested his newly recieved Pokeball and Trainers license. Taking the license, and brushing fondly against the Pokeball as he did so, Ra'uf brought the small metal card up with his hand and presented it the man.

The man took grabbed Ra'ufs hand and twisted it slightly to the side, where it was better position for the scrutiny that followed. As the man looked at the card, Ra'uf looked at the man. He felt a quiet curiosity for him, similar to the curiosity he felt towards wealth, and Ra'uf wondered at the man. What was he like? What had his life been like, living in a world that Ra'uf had no experience with, but was soon to be immersed in?

He seemed friendly enough, and Ra'uf was not upset at having a gun pointed at him. It was unnerving, of course, and Ra'uf found himself leaning subconsciously away from where the fire-arm was pointed, but he otherwise disregarded it. The man was too strange not to capture his attention, and Ra'uf found himself liking him on no particular basis other than his strangeness. He was simply too fascinating to be upsetting, and Ra'uf was not the type to be easily upset anyways.

The man finished inspecting the card and released Ra'uf's wrist, turning his attention instead to Ra'uf himself. When he saw Ra'uf staring back with polite curiosity, the sight stunned him for a moment, but a second later he narrowed his eyes in suspicion, and hefted the gun a little higher to make his point. Ra'uf's eyes went immediately back to the gun, and the man, who had been satisfied by the shift, continued.

"Good. Tha's good. But I need t'eh see the Poke.. the Pokeba-" The word caught in the mans throat, as if he was hesitant to let it loose into the air, and the fact caught Ra'uf's attention. What was so hard about saying "Pokeball"? Then he noticed another thing, which at the same time it explained the mans difficulty raised entirely new questions.

The man was afraid. Something about the word "Pokeball" was attached, in his mind, to terror. The thought alone made him uncomfortable, and to actually talk about it was a step further he could tell the man was used to taking. Ra'uf could only think of one thing at all fearful about Pokeballs, and that was the Pokemon contained within them.

That made sense; Ra'uf knew that most people were afraid of Pokemon. He had not imagined, however, how pronounced that fear was. The man looked tried and hardened by a long and difficult life; his obvious comfort with the shotgun hinted at nerves of steel. And yet the mere subject of Pokemon caused him to stutter. The fear must be severe indeed, Ra'uf decided, and deep. Very deep.

-"Pokeball." The man finished, and then glared at Ra'uf in an attempt to regain some of his former composure.

Ra'uf reached into his pocket again, and brought out this time both his license and the Pokeball containing Misdreavus. He understood why the man wanted to see both; So long as he found the same symbol on either item, they would confirm each others authenticity, as well as Ra'uf's.

Thieves were not afraid to steal a trainer's I.D; there was nothing dangerous about them, and they allowed access to a number of institutes which contained appealingly expensive technology. Pokeballs, on the other hand, were seen as monsters just waiting to break loose and devour whoever had been fool enough to take them, and so were a less popular choice among civilian theft. Because of that fact, Ra'uf's status could still be doubted on the evidence of a trainers I.D alone, while the presence of both I.D and a Pokeball would leave it safely indisputable.

Well, no reason to worry, Ra'uf thought to himself as the old man scanned the Pokeball and I.D in quick succession. Neither item was stolen, Ra'uf knew, and after a moment the man seemed to pick up on this as well, for he handed the items back to Ra'uf with an affirming grunt, and then let the barrel of the shot gun fall limp.

"Good. Alright. Follow me on in, then. You seem to be who you say you are, and I cant imagine someone fool enough to say anything else wise on a night like this. No point in pose'n. The mayor announces it on trumpets, yeah, "The Pokemon Trainers only!" And then names this years unfortunate inn. Lucky us, this year, yeah. Well, come on in, then. Its lots cold out here. They don't pay us to deal with _that."_

The man stepped to the side, opening the entrance to Ra'uf, who understood it to be a gesture of invitation. Gladly accepting, for it really was cold out, Ra'uf stepped cautiously inside, his curiosity peaking as the answer to his wondering drew near.

Bright lights reflected on a speckles tile floor, which led at first to a small but plush looking square of couches, and secondarily to a tall wooden counter which came up to about chest height. Behind it stood a woman, whom but for the neck and bits of the shoulder, had been lost almost entirely to view due to the formidable size of the counter. Ra'uf found it to be slightly humorous, and smiled very lightly to himself, hoping that he did not offend the woman.

The room itself was small, stretching only twenty feet away from Ra'uf, and another ten feet or so on either side to his right and left. And wealth, which Ra'uf had been hoping to see, was almost completely absent from the scene. The fact depressed Ra'uf slightly, but it struck him then that the room was destitute of something else as well.

People, which Ra'uf had expected to practically be lining the walls, were nowhere to be seen. But for himself, the head of the woman behind the counter, and the shot-gun wielding man who had greeted him at the door, the room was barren of life. The silence seemed tangible and thick to Ra'uf, like a fourth presence that dwarfed all himself and the other two occupants and claimed sole domination of the room.

The thought made him pause in the stillness, afraid to move, as if to draw sound would be to challenge the monstrous silence. The man, however, must have been imagining something quite different at that moment, for he allowed his voice to issue loud and clear through the room. The oppressive silence, only moments into being, dissipated instantly at the sound.

" Hah. Heh. Your wondering where all the people went, yeah?" The man paused for confirmation, and Ra'uf, unsure quite what to do, nodded tersely in reply.

The man chuckled. "You scared them off, tha's what happened to them!Not a soul in the city willing to sleep within a square mile radius of you that doesn't have a few..._creatures_ of his own strapped to his side. It'd be crazy for them to. What if something breaks loose, yeah? What then? Half the city could go up in flames, so everyone in their right minds is already sleeping on the other half.

Course, they're a bunch of cowards, so don't take it to heart. We at the inns got the spine to bear your prickly presence. Its bad for business, you know, but we do it. Every year, one of us has to. The mayor picks someone new every year, and we go full cycle between this and three other nearby inns. Its fair that way, you see. Terrible for business, having one of you around. No customers all day, and none tomorrow as well, in all likelihood. Despicable cowards. Or maybe there jus' smart. Heh.

Anyway, you there, with the bad luck, up to the counter. That's the good lady. She's not afraid, not to talk to you, at least. She'll give you a room key and then send you on your way. I probably wont see you again, and I know your type tend to wake up early, so feel free to open these doors without me. So long as your off, nice and early as possible. I want my customers back, and that _thing _at your side a good distance away before it has a chance to burn something down. "

Ra'uf stared at the man for a second, open mouthed, stunned by both the hostility and the plain English that had been sent his way. The man obviously did not think much of his Misdreavus, and Ra'uf could understand, though he wondered what made the man think it breathed fire. More than that, though, the man had obviously just carried out his half of a conversation, and Ra'uf wondered how to respond.

"It...doesn't breathe fire. It wont set anything alight." Ra'uf tried, slowly forcing each word into being. It was tough; they caught in his throat, his hesitance to speak them interfering with the steady flow of them from his brain, until all the different things he had thought to say massed into a bounding confusion of thoughts, and it became impossible for Ra'uf to choose what was most important or appropriate to tell.

The man scoffed loudly, unaware and thus insensitive to Ra'uf's difficulty, then responded in a swift and forceful tone to the offending statement.

"Hah! Hm! What, then? Does it freeze things? Electrocute things? _Curse_ things, for goodness sake? I don't care how it destroys, the only thing that matters is that it does! Wretched little monsters that defy science as we know it. Don't make the slightest ounce of sense. And don't need to. Don't even try. They're too happy blowing things up. Dont bother me with the details. Don't care if its got wings or fangs, ice or flames. Just keep it under control. Now, Good night, sir! I'm told I've got two more of your bunch to welcome, for' the nights over."

And that was it. The man turned to the door, walked a short distance towards it, and sat in a delicately small chair that had been positioned very close distance away. Once seated, the shot gun rose onto his lap, and without so much as glancing at Ra'uf the man drew a rag from within his pocket and began wiping it down.

Ra'uf, for his part, had been quite blown away by the mans outburst. His feelings of pleasant interest and cordiality towards the man had cooled. Ra'uf was out of his element when conversing with strangers, and that had clearly shown while talking to the man, as well as had its consequences.

Ra'uf felt a brief wave of regret that he had upset the man, and the excitement which had been flowing through him for the past hour faded away. What had he done to this man, to make him so upset? IT was impossible to know. To someone else, and surely to the man himself, the answer was almost assuredly evident beyond reason. To him, however, it was a conundrum, and one which it would at this point do nothing to solve.

Sighing lightly to himself, as to do so loudly would draw undue attention and further hostility from the man, Ra'uf proceeded to the other figure that he had so recently been introduced to. That last thought aught his attention. He had met two people in the last five minutes. They were the first people to be new to his life in years, aside from the masked military personal of the helicopter.

It was a newly exciting thought, and once again Ra'uf felt himself becoming slightly enthusiastic. Yes, he had already ruined one of the two encounters that he was yet to have, but every step he took drew him closer to a second chance. He would not fail this one, as well! Ra'uf prided himself on being the sort that learned from his mistakes.

This time, Ra'uf promised himself, he would have a perfectly pleasant conversation, and it would conclude in a perfectly desirable way.

That thought in mind, Ra'uf stepped up to the counter behind which was situated the lady, and smiled at her. The lady, whose head remained the only visible feature even close up, responded in a manner that Ra'uf had not expected, and could not explain, and yet shattered his nerves and caused a cold sweat to break out over his forehead.

The lady, who Ra'uf saw now to be perhaps eighteen years of age and decently attractive, smiled back. When her lips had split enough to fully expose the teeth along the right side of her mouth, which Ra'uf espied to be dazzlingly clean, further, more confusing movements followed. The ladies head inclined to the side, and her eyes ran up and down as much of Ra'ufs head and shoulders were visible from her side of the counter.

That done, the lady nodded slightly, and winked. The action was like an attack, the full force of which knocked Ra'uf back a distance and left his mind reeling. It was at this point that sweat broke out, and instantly he withdrew his own smile, cursing the wretched thing for all the evil that it had already done.

The second encounter had barely begun, but Ra'uf already recognized it to be ruined. The lady was unmistakably enamored with him, and if Ra'uf had a hard time talking to with middle aged men, then it was nothing compared to his inadequacy with talking to an interested young woman. He had perhaps never been more scared in his life, and he suddenly wished intensely for this desire to end, very quickly, and in whatever form of success that it may.

Horror had another chance to dawn, then, for Ra'uf realized that it was his place to speak the first words. They would be disastrous, no matter what he settled on. That much was certain. Perhaps, then, there was no point in delaying the inevitable. He would just say whatever came to mind, and run the first chance he could.

"Good evening..." Ra'uf mumbled, finding it very hard to make eye contact. The pen holder to the right of her desk seemed much more interesting, all of the sudden, than her lethal stare. She giggled, though, so it was probably not the worst thing that could have been said.

Whatever the case, the ball was in her court now, and Ra'uf prayed that she go easy on him. If he was lucky, she would say everything that need be said in one go, ask for his money, and then give him his room key. The most intimate thing she would do was wave and say "Good night".

"Hey there. Welcome to the Full-Cross inn. Staying long?" Her voice, which had a much lighter coating of the accent than her father, dropped an octave or two on the last sentence, but rose quite a number of levels more in interest. Ra'uf found that disturbing. Especially as the it required a response.

"Nu...no. Just the night. Wh...where will I be staying?" He asked, tentatively. To his dismay, the lady pounced then, expertly manipulating the statement in a way that Ra'uf disliked very much.

" Well...that's up to you." She said, suggestively, and Ra'uf blushed.

"There's a number of rooms here. All of them are empty, at this point. Its like my father over there said - your and your two friends are our only customers tonight. All of the rooms are open to you. Every last one. Would you like my suggestion, though, as to where you would sleep most _comfortably_ tonight?"

Ra'uf sensed a similar level of suggestion in this statement, and his blush grew a little in size and intensity. He could guess what she would suggest, and Ra'uf was adamantly against it. The trick was to get past her and gain what he would need to have his own room for the night while at the same time avoiding hurting her feelings. Anything else, and he would land himself in a sticky situation.

A stroke of inspiration came suddenly upon him, and Ra'uf knew instantly of a way to do this. He started by shaking his head, and then followed up with words.

" I need a room close to the front. There's a good chance my Pokemon will get lose, and its a very terrible sort of breed. Feeds primarily on female humans and children. The males make for too large of a meal. I haven't had the chance to train it out of her yet, so it would be safest if I stayed near the entrance. That way, the first door that she breaks through is those outside ones there. They love breaking through doors, you know. Have a very strong predatory instinct. Always looking for food. Would that be alright?"

Ra'uf found in himself the courage to look at the lady now, and was pleased to see that her face had gone from displaying infatuation to horror.

"I...I've never heard of a Pokemon like that...What is it called?..." She whispered, her voice thick with fear and curiosity. Ra'uf had to praise her spirit, that she was brave enough to be curious, even in the midst of being terrified. Additionally, it was impressive that the word Pokemon, which in her fathers mind was linked to such a monstrous fear that he could barely stand hearing the word, came so easily from the lips of his daughter.

" They call it Kill-disk, after what its best known for. Don't worry, though; They're not native to these parts. Will a close room be alright, then?"

The lady nodded, her face pale now rather than inviting, and hastily reached under the counter. Her hand came back up clutched around a small metal key, which she wasted no time in imparting to Ra'uf. Ra'uf accepted the item gratefully, feelings slightly sorry for having scared her so badly. She probably wouldn't sleep well that night, with the thought of Kill-disk on her mind.

Fear was easier to get over than hurt, though. Much better to have scared her away that to have pushed her. He had some experiences with romance, though only vicariously, and they had taught him the value of sensitivity. The others had had a few incidents among themselves, and Ra'uf had learned from them just how painful rejection could be. He hoped never to cause that pain in someone else.

"Yeah. That's just fine. This is to room 110. Have a good night, and...be careful about your Pokemon, please. If I'm not here in the morning, than just leave your room key on the counter, and ill get it when I wake up."

Ra'uf nodded. He smiled again at her as he did so, just slightly, so as to reassure her, and she smiled weakly in return. Ra'uf turned then and left, and found himself actually liking how that had ended. He could still feel the sweat on his forehead and the rapid thumping of his heart that the experience had produced, but with a swipe of his arm the sweat disappeared, and already his pulse had slowed.

Ra'uf found his room, entered the key, and walked through the door once it had opened. What he found on the other side was much more than he had expected. The bed seemed large and comfortable, carpeting covered the floor, and the bathroom was pleasantly sized. Ra'uf plopped his stuff down by the door, locked it securely behind him, and made a beeline to the bed.

Nothing could have been more desirable, in that moment, than to fall asleep. It had been a long day in a short time, and Ra'uf was tired. Tomorrow was the start, also, of his Pokemon training. And he was tired of waiting, as well.

Tonight would be a good rest, he decided. It would solve so much.

That thought in mind, Ra'uf stripped, climbed under the covers, and fell quickly to sleep. Misdreavus, safely enclosed in her Pokeball, rested on the night stand. She too slept peacefully, her psychic mind aware that something more than sunlight would come new with the dawn, and pleased with the knowledge.

There was nothing more deliciously destructive than change, and she was through starving for it.

-- -- --

Ra'uf woke before dawn, as was his habit. Not quite at the point in the morning when the sun was out, but at the point when the world was just barely beginning to light.

It was necessary for him to flip the switch on the lamp next to his bed and let the artificial light spill over the room, in order for him to see enough to get dressed. He saw that his clothes were still on the ground, where in his haste he had left them the previous night.

Sitting up in bed, Ra'uf stopped thinking, then, and allowed himself to feel. What came surprised him; he felt numb and excited at the same time, like yelling for joy and grinning stupidly at everything in sight. Like rushing out the doors, completely impervious to the sluggishness of morning, and parading down the streets in his own private celebration of the day.

He was a Pokemon trainer now. It was almost too much to believe, but it was true. Impossibly, wonderfully true.

And today there was only two things on his agenda; First, he would see the city. He would not spend long sight seeing, but he wanted to view as much of the world he be spending the next month training in as possible. There was so much for him to see, so many things that had existed only in fragmented completion, drawn from the accounts of others, that reality would now piece together . So many questions he would now be capable of resolving, an empty hole of knowledge that would in the course of a single month at work, drown completely out of existence.

Or perhaps he would first do the other thing on his agenda, and find a quite, secluded place, and see his Pokemon. Ra'uf was eager to meet his Misdreavus for the first time since her capture. Not that they would have much of a conversation; the first step in training a Pokemon, especially one with aviary capabilities, was convincing it to stay still. Doing so required repetitiously releasing the Pokemon, attempting to reason with it, and then activating the return mechanism the moment it bolted.

The experience of being in the Pokeball for the first time had a frightening effect upon Pokemon. Most, when first released, had only the sense of mind to flee. Unfortunately for the Pokemon, Pokemon trainers had no trouble returning them to the Pokeball the instant they attempted. Sooner or later, the Misdreavus would realize that there was no point in running.

Once it had, Ra'uf had been taught that what followed was the bond making portion of the training. In those precious few moments, the trainer sent the Pokemon a message which would define their relationship from that moment on. The conventional method was to face down the Pokemon, meet its power with the trainers own, and triumph.

It sounded a more difficult task than it was. Pokemon had more raw strength than humans, but for the trainers to have even graduated, they were required to have strength in knowledge. Every starter Pokemon was hopelessly outmatched in the initial contest of power, for the trainer always knew exactly how to incapacitate it. And once the Pokemon had lost, the trainer would become recognized as the alpha, and acquire dominance.

Ra'uf would not do this.

In all honesty, he was not sure what he would do. Perhaps, to an extent, he would be forced to display dominance over his Misdreavus. But it would not happen in the sense that it usually did, and so the result would not be the traditional result. Ra'uf wanted to be listened to. But not because he was feared, or because he naturally assumed the Pokemon to be little more than Power-enhanced dirt. Capable, but worthless, heartless, and soulless. Empty clay, to mold as he would, and create from it whatever tool he desired.

Ra'uf would treat his Pokemon like the living being that it was, with enormous intelligence and rivaled his own, and equal in its capability to feel. Ra'uf was confidant this was the right thing to do, and that he had created a view far superior and more accurate the one which had been given to him.

It was based on what he had always been taught, only he had reached a far different conclusion. Pokemon were intelligent, they had told him. They could communicate. They could judge for themselves the worth of a trainer. They would exact revenge on those who mistreated them, and follow loyally those who treated them well. All of these traits were like half of a spectrum, the other half of which could be guessed upon, so that a brilliant and full understanding of the whole came into being.

Intelligence hinted at the ability to understand, the ability to learn, to comprehend basic principles and apply them. It meant the ability, in short, to think. Pokemon were thinking creatures.

Communication was a skill that showed organization, the ability to create and interpret patterns. This hinted at the ability to learn, but also the ability to empathize, the ability to understand another creature and converse with it. Pokemon were not purely self-centered creatures, then. They had the ability to imagine thought, and importance, beyond themselves.

And that Pokemon took revenge on those who mistreated them and remained steadfastly loyal to those who did not hinted at the ability to feel. The ability to care, or to hate, and perhaps even to love. Pokemon were feeling creatures as well.

And when Ra'uf thought of them in this way, they seemed little less to him than slightly less intelligent humans. The only trait that humans held that the Pokemon lacked was the ability to construct. It had once been intelligence.

Now, the animals had become very nearly as intelligent. The only thing that made humans special these days was that the humans no longer tore at one anther's throats. Of course, murder still existed, but not at all in the way that murder existed among the Pokemon. There was an in-bred brutality that all Pokemon possessed, and scientists had never been able to explain it. Wild Pokemon were vicious to all creatures of a different species, and very often to those of their own as well.

But when the Pokemon trainers caught a wild Pokemon, through careful training, the brutality disappeared, or at least was suppressed. And so the one thing that really made Pokemon and Humans different, in Ra'uf's mind, could be overcome. Pokemon could be tamed, and their vicious nature replaced. In effect, once captured and tamed, they became little more than children in mind, and monsters in body.

And that train of thought always lead Ra'uf to and ended on that these creatures were enslaved, and then mistreated. Emotionally mishandled. Ra'uf had nothing against the actual capturing of Pokemon, but that after wards the trainers always crafted them into a stone-hearted lackey rather than the amazingly human creatures that they had the potential to be disgusted him. Surely, Pokemon had the potential to be friendly, sensitive creatures which knew happiness, and Ra'uf would settle for nothing less.

There was logic in his reasoning, at points, and at other points it was completely illogical. But Ra'uf had come to understand, over time, that a good decision took two things into account; The brain and the heart. Of the two, the heart was more important. It was the guide. The brain reasoned and reasoned, but the moment it was done reasoning, it was important to let his feelings sway the decision. Ra'uf believed in doing what was right; and logic alone had no grasp on what that was.

And so, logically, there was no good reason to make things so difficult for himself, to attempt such a radical method of raising when a perfectly viable way already existed. It would gain him nothing, in the long run, but sorrow. Pokemon sympathizers were hung from rafters, and then, in order to demonstrate the depth of their error, had their corpses thrown to the Pokemon.

But in his heart, Ra'uf was interested only in the well being of his Pokemon, and the justice in their treatment. They would be his life, officially, from that day forward. Ra'uf wanted what was best for them, and it was deeply important that he could give them the happiness they would give him, so long as they were capable of receiving it. That was his own perception of honor, and it was what defined him. To do otherwise would be to undermine who he was and what he believed in. Ra'uf was willing to do neither.

And so Ra'uf had reason to believe that Pokemon were capable of civilization, had care enough in his heart for this to be important, and from the two had been produced his creed. He would treat Pokemon well, because they were capable of appreciating good treatment. He would not follow the Alpha system, in which there was underlings and overload.

He would follow the Ra'uf system, in which there was only caring for his Pokemon, providing for them, day after day, until they loved him utterly. If they did something wrong, he would teach them, but even when harsh, he would be gentle, and it would be there well being, not just his own, that rested on his mind.

Then, disobedience would not be an issue. And at that point, he would truly have earned their obedience. Or at least, that was what Ra'uf hoped. It all still seemed so vague to him, what he was planning. The only thing that he knew for sure was that he would do things differently, completely differently, and that if anyone ever found out about it he would never again be welcome among humans. They would brand him with a mark of disownment, or take his life themselves.

That in mind, Ra'uf got up from his bed, clothed himself in the barely used articles from the previous day, made the bed, and then left. All of his things, bar the Pokeball and the Key to the room, went into his pack. Even his trainer I.D, which he had up to this point kept in his pocket, was stored in one of the front most and smallest pockets of the pack. He had been scared of losing it, and felt it was safer in the zipped up compartment of his travel-pack than in his open pocket.

The Pokeball he placed, without hesitation, into one of those open pockets. His hand would not be leaving it, nor his grip of it its smooth, warm surface, be in danger of loosening. The device was as safe as it could possibly be.

Ra'uf left the room once that had been done, a mere ten minutes after waking and washing up. The hall way was dark, lit only by a steady procession of candles, but Ra'uf had no trouble making the short distance from his room to the front entrance. When he arrived there, Ra'ufsaw that the lady and the man from the previous night had yet to come out, and so did as instructed and left the his room key on the counter.

It made a small clanking sound as it dropped, and Ra'uf was reminded of the silence. Last night, it had seemed peculiar to him, but now anything other than silence would have been strange to Ra'uf. The morning was a time for silence, and hotels were, as far he was aware, no exception. It was only natural that no one be there, and that no noise be made, and so Ra'uf felt completely at ease as he dismantled the many locks and bolts on the front door, lifted them off, and pushed through into the thick morning air.

-- -- --

Ra'uf decided, almost instantly, that he would be meeting with his Pokemon first, and exploring the city later. Iwate was a port town, and though there were no other ports in Tohoku t for it to connect to, the ocean still remained pertinent to the cities day-to-day existence and function. It made the town a cooler and damper place, even in summer, and fishing accounted for seventy percent of the cities provisions.

But it also meant that every morning and night began with a thick layer of fog, which obscured everything that Ra'uf might see quite as efficiently as the darkness from the previous night. It was frustrating, really, that his becoming a trainer was still being, in some small way, inhibited. It also meant, however, that he did not have to look far for an adequately clandestine place at which to stage his meeting.

After only about twenty minutes, Ra'uf stumbled upon a small clearing, surrounded, in addition to the fog, by a thick wall of trees. Ra'uf felt exceptionally well hidden in the clearing, and there would be more than enough room for what he meant to do. Another deciding factor was that it was important Ra'uf begin the training quickly. He had only about one hour before the fog cleared out, and at that point it was best he relocate to an entirely secluded place.

In the meantime, however, the clearing would do perfectly.

Ra'uf's heart began to pick up its pace as he tossed his bag to the side and took careful steps into the middle of the clearing. This was it, he realized. He was going to see his Misdreavus for the first time since its capture, and then he was going to train it. Exactly as he had been waiting five years in preparation to do, he would now accomplish. It was a thrilling thought, and Ra'uf found excitement growing in him at every step.

When he came to a stop, the excitements' growth stopped with him, and a new emotion began to grow in its stead. Anxiety. He was nervous, now, to begin. To draw his right hand, still firmly clutched to the pokeball, from his pocket, and then click the small button at the center which caused it to enlarge. From there, it was only a small matter of tossing the Pokeball forward, and his starter would materialize once more into being.

Ra'uf did not have the patience to wait, to work through his anxiety at a steady pace. Instead, in a single swift, fluid movement, Ra'uf withdrew his hand, enlarged the Pokeball, and tossed it into the air. A moment later, the ball split in two, releasing from its interior a tiny cluster of dark red light that was his Misdreavus in energy form.

The ball recoiled from the force of the release, and shot back towards Ra'uf, so that he had to reach out and catch it before it could pass. The moment it was in his hands, the release mechanism of the Pokeball went into its final phase. A light blue glow began to emanate from the white bottom-half of the Pokeball, and the floating red ball of energy that was his Misdreavus responded to the light.

Slowly, the energy expanded, becoming a lighter shade of red as the mass separated from in on itself, expanding into a greater, less dense form. Slowly, the shape and size of Misdreavus was recreated, until a bright red outline of the Pokemon stood, floating, in mid-air. Then, with a final, deep blue pulse from the Pokeball, the energy materialized, turning from bright red to a dark purple, and Ra'uf braced himself for what his now fully released Pokemon would do.

The Misdreavus stood still for the first second, its eyes closed, and a peaceful look upon its face. Then, the Pokemon shook itself out of its stupor, causing bright white flecks of light that Ra'uf had previously escaped Ra'uf's notice to disperse in every direction. That done, the Misdreavus came explosively into animation, its eyes shooting open and instantly flying into a quest of appraisal, its body lagging frantically behind as it turned every which way in search of some explanation for the sudden shift in scenery.

It did not take long for it to find Ra'uf.

The moment Misdreavus' eyes fell on him, Ra'uf understood a single very clear fact; The Pokemon was furious. The mannerisms that followed the sighting only proved its anger. The Misdreavus' puffed up, her eyes turned a darker shade of red, and her ghostly appearance faded into transparency. She seemed also to have lost her substance, for steady streams of fog rolled in through her figure as she commenced her approach on Ra'uf.

Despite all of the careful steps taken to intimidate him, however, Ra'uf remained undaunted. He had nothing to fear, he knew, accept for a sudden bought of incompetence. The school had taught in exquisite detail the correct steps he should take in taming a Pokemon, and so long as Ra'uf performed them correctly it was his Misdreavus that would soon be afraid. And the first thing it appeared he would need to do was remind his Misdreavus of what exactly made a trainer frightening.

And so lifting up his right hand, Ra'uf displayed to her the Pokeball. The reaction was exactly as he had predicted. Coming to a sudden halt and deflating like a sullen balloon, the Misdreavus regained enough of her corporeality to stem the flow of fog, and then paled to very near the same color as the mist. Another moment later, she had reversed directions, and was speeding as fast away from Ra'uf as she could towards the edge of the clearing.

She made it no more than ten feet before a thin red beam shot out from the Pokeball in Ra'uf's outstretched hand and captured her. The contact of the beam had a similar effect as when Ra'uf had thrown the ball itself; the Misdreavus froze into place, her momentum completely and instantly lost. Within a matter of seconds she had been transformed into energy, which further compressed into the shape of a ball as the Pokeball reeled her in.

When the energy had made it to within a foot of the Pokeball, the split along the center of the device widened, so that a small hole opened along its surface. The beam, which issued out from the center of the Pokeball, zoomed the rest of the way back through the small gap and dragged the now tiny form of his Misdreavus with it. When all of the thin red energy had disappeared into the interior of the device, The Pokeball snapped close with a quite click, and the "Return" was complete.

The moment was almost int-cliatically soft, but as the clicking sound faded out of hearing Ra'uf felt only excited. What he had just seen and done had pushed the last vestiges of drowsiness from his mind, and fulfilled a desire which had been grown in instensity within him since the moment of his wakening the previous day. To see his Misdreavus, the Pokemon that he had worked so hard to claim and would now work so much harder to train, had been like an electronic shock to his nerves. It had awakened in him the same bursting enthusiasm that he had felt the previous night, which was an enthusiasms gained knowing that in a just a small period of time he was advancing, progressing at a rate which defied the steady pace he had grown accustomed to in his five monotonous years of learning .

And the knowledge that he was actually doing something, actually moving along the way to becoming a trainer, made the feeling only that much more invigorating. The entire capture and release, which had taken less than a minute of his time, had left in him an intense and irrepressible craving to see the process repeated over and over again as many times as his short time-limit would allow.

Within the next twenty minutes, Ra'uf pledged to himself, he would have his Misdreavus floating complacently across from him, her ears open to his plea for alliance, and heart open to his offer of friendship.

--- --- ---

Ra'uf did not carry on his persona a watch, and so whether it was truly twenty minutes or more like the half of an hour that it felt to have been before his Misdreavus came out of the Pokeball without making a desperate bid for freedom.

Despite not counting the minutes, however, Ra'uf had kept careful track of the hopeful releases and disappointing returns. The first five had gone very much like the first, with only a slight difference in that his Misdreavus had altogether lost the initial nerve that in the first run had emboldened her enough to come after him. Sometimes a brief flicker of it would return, and she would pause just long enough to toss a rude gesture and shout at him before taking off, but for the most part her fear of the Pokeball had her fleeing within the first couple of seconds.

From the fifth to seventeenth time, the Misdreavus, now frustrated, attempted more and more elaborate schemes of retreat, none of which amounted to anything more than her repeated capture. Ra'uf thought this might once again have had a damaging effect on the delicate pride that she and all other Pokemon shared, and had been proven right when, after the seventeenth and most cunning of her attempts (in which she attempted to fly upwards rather than outwards), the Misdreavus came out of her Pokeball and did nothing but sink to the ground, sobbing boisterously.

Ra'uf had felt bad, at first, as if he had pushed her over some invisble edge that as a novice he was not practiced enough to recognize, but the feeling had quickly faded. The moment his arm relaxed, convinced as he was that she was through trying to escape, the sobs came to an abrupt end. She then Perked up slightly, a movement which allowed Ra'uf to see how her watering eyes had kept careful track of him through the peripheral, the Misdreavus saw her chance and tried a final, climatically desperate time to escape.

She had failed. After that, she had sulked for a bit. And now, on the nineteenth release, she made no attempt whatsoever to run. Floating calmly but warily in place, the Misdreavus kept her narrowed eyes focused on Ra'uf, who did as he had been instructed to do and tested her.

Ra'uf lifted his left arm, and the Misdreavus's eyes remained trained on it. Ra'uf then lifted his right arm, and in an act which did well to remind Ra'uf of how inhuman the creature before him was, the Misdreavus' left eyefollowed the new action while her right eye remained fixed on his other arm.

The result was that both of her eyes stuck out at impossibly contrasting angles, while her face remained keenly impassive. Ra'uf felt slightly nauseous just watching, but reminded himself that this was still technically what he had wanted. He could now be sure beyond a doubt that he had his Misdreavus' complete and total attention. And so Ra'uf thought then to what he had been told was the next step to take. The answer came quickly, and the mere thought of it made him turn his head away in shame and repulsion.

What he was supposed to do now was dominate her. Beat her. Crush her. Defeat her in some way, and hold her there, until the spirit of fighting left her and whatever remained of her fragile ego shattered beneath his heel and then fell in a frgamented heep to the ground. Here was the moment in which dominance, cruel, brutal dominance, was supposed to be established, and Ra'uf's position as alpha of the pack secured.

But it was at this point that Ra'uf' did not do as he was supposed to.

Instead, Ra'uf reached into the pack at his side, and drew from it a small pink berry. It had been one of the many parting gifts from the Pokemon school; a variety of berries, all with their own unique healing properties and flavor. The one Ra'uf now held was a Persim berry, which was sour to the taste, and had the ability to help heal disorientation, usually of the sort induced by confusion attacks in battle. That, along with its flavoring, would give it great appeal to the Misdreavus.

Ra'uf opened his fist, causing the berry to tumble down into the center of his open palm, and then slowly lifted the morsel upwards in offering. Fifteen feet away and with both eyes now trained on the Persim berry, the Misdreavus motionlessly watched its ascent, and Ra'uf in turn kept his gaze steadily fixed on her. What he was hoping to see now was some sign of interest, of desire for the berry, that might tempt her into approaching him.

He had heavily researched the facial signs of Pokemon and how to interpret them. It had been an unnecessary move; Mr. Gershom had been thorough in teaching Ra'uf and all the others how to interpret Pokemon body language, but Ra'uf had wanted to make sure that he had not forgotten any of the crucial information. What he had learned had been interesting, especially when contrasted to humans.

A human that is interested in something, for instance, will usually edge ever so slightly forward. Pokemon, on the other hand, had the tendency to take a step backward when faced with something that tempted them, something researchers speculated to be an acquired instinct for avoiding traps and lures.

Other small hints included the raising of eyebrows, which once again mirrored the humans tendency to narrow them, and a thinning of the lips. In all, a tempted Pokemon could be known as such if its eyes were raised, its mouth drawn tight, and if it was steadily moving backwards.

Ra'uf's arm came to stop, fully raised and outstretched, and the small jerk caused the berry to roll onto its side. At the small movement, the Misdreavus al of recoiled, raised her eyes, and drew her mouth into a tight line. Relief flowed through Ra'uf, and anticipation thudded through him with every beat of his heart, as he waited with baited breath to see what now would happen.

A minute passed in this way, with neither Ra'uf or Misdreavus moving, and Ra'uf began to notice every little sensation with acute sensitivity until they had formed a conglomeration of irritations that made him fight not to squirm. His arm was tense and sore from being held in a suspended position as long as it had, as were his legs and torso and neck. Warm sweat ran down his brow, for some reason that he could not imagine, for he had done nothing strenuous or tiring enough that morning to make him perspire. The cold fog, which still rolled in thick unending waves through the clearing, felt all the more biting because of it.

And most keenly of all he noticed his Misdreavus, and how as the seconds ticked by she remained dispirtingly immobile. He saw how the expression on her face went slowly from confusion to distrust, and then at a slightly faster rate morphed to hesitation. When Ra'uf's arm had began to shake from the tension and the sweat on his brow was starting to seep unbearably into his eyes, the Misdreavus's expression underwent one final change, from hesitation to resolution, and finally she began her approach.

Ra'uf had ceased to breathe. He felt only a growing sense of hope and wonder as his Pokemon made closed the distance between them, and even the basic function of drawing air was forgotten in the wake of the feelings. It was what he had been hoping for, every day for the last five years of his life, that his silly seeming idea of a friendship between Trainer and Pokemon would prove itself when the deciding moment came. It had come in that very moment, and across from him was a Pokemon moving in reception, not rejection. It seemed too good to be true.

His Misdreavus closed the final few feet of the distance between them, and then came to a hover before his arm. She first looked down at the berry , which was so deliciously tempting to her, such a grand and noble offer that she could hardly imagine anyone would make it to her, and had then to turn and look at the mysterious soul who had. Ra'uf stared back, thinking of how the wonder on her face must surely have been present in his own, and pondering further if the glow in his heart was likewise reflected in her own.

Tearing her gaze from Ra'uf and bending slowly down, the Misdreavus took the entire Persim berry into her mouth, and Ra'uf felt his heart leap with joy. Reaching his left hand tentatively forward, Ra'uf brought it down until it rested directly above the Misdreavus head. Hesitating now himself, Ra'uf took a single gulp to steel himself, and then brought his hand the remainder of the way down.

The Misdreavus did not react to the presence of his hand, even as he slowly began to move it over the surface of her head in slow, rhythmic movements, but to Ra'uf it caused a powerful series of reactions. Every time his hand completed a stroke, pure exhilaration coursed through his chest, urging his heart to even faster speeds until his hand returned to its starting position and began another stroke. Then, while his hand moved slowly over the surface of her head, he would cease again to draw air, and only the sensation of being with the creature before him existed.

The Misdreavus was a slow chewer, and the Persim berry was exceptionally large for its breed, so Ra'uf was given ample time to wallow in the moment. His body and heart were completely at ease, and he satisfied his mind by pondering over the many quirks of his Misdreavus. She was an undeniably strange creature, and all of her oddities fascinated him.

Her skin, for instance, was cold to the touch, and felt something like a cross between a marshmallow, a water bed, and silken fur. It could be made to disappear, he knew, to lose its substance and yet somehow remain in being, and it felt so foreign under his fingers that had Ra'uf been uneducated and that fact only a rumour, the feel of her skin alone would have made him believe.

Even how it responded to his petting was fascinating. The pressure of his hand caused the skin to bend wherever it went, so that a slight depression followed his strokes. It was an effect Ra'uf rather liked. In fact, Ra'uf found that within the short time he had been petting her he had grown fond of everything about his Misdreavus' fur.

When at last the Misdreavus finished chewing, she seemed suddenly to notice the soft pressure along her skull, and lifted her eyes curiously away from the surface of Ra'uf's palm to stare at his arm. Ra'uf felt his heart jump again, though this time in anxiety, but the Misdreavus made no moves to escape. Nervously, Ra'uf decided to continue.

His arm fell to the back of her head and then rose again, the Misdreavus following the movement in open-mouthed wonder, and then settled at the top of her head. This time, Ra'uf put slightly less force into his hand, in a cautious effort to be gentle with her now that he had her attention. The moment she noticed the pressure had eased up, however, the Misdreavus ducked her head and pressed forward into his palm, rubbing hard against the surface of his hand.

Ra'uf's mind went numb. She had accepted his kindness. She was rubbing back, more vigorously even than he had been, in a manner that was clearly neither wild nor vicious. He had been right, always right, about Pokemon and their natures. He could barely comprehend what he was seeing, but he knew now, he had been right.

At that time, forty minutes of the hour Ra'uf had set aside for training had gone by, though neither he nor the Misdreavus were aware of it. For the twenty minutes that remained until the sun came up and the fog lifted, the two of them stayed exactly as they were, and in that time a bond far deeper than either had ever experienced before was forged.


	9. The City Iwate

Authors note: This chapter was by far the most difficult. I suffered a very extreme case of inertia in writing this - the begging was impossible for me. However, after lots of hard work and excruciatingly slow writing, i have finally completed chapter nine.

Im sorry to you all that this took such a terribly long time to come out. As i have mentioned in previous chapters, times are tough at the moment, and this last month has had me at a constant low. I just am not in the best of moods most of the time, and my brain has been completely inverted to mush. Luckily, i had a week long break from school last week, or i think i would still be slogging through things. It couldnt have come soon enough - Id been starting to sleep through my classes, not pay attention when awake, and basically learn nothing. So again, Im sorry this took so long, and i reveal this all to you to empathize that I did not make you wait selfishly. I needed the break, or i would not have taken it. Please be assured of that.

Next, i quick thank you to all the wonderful people who reviewed to me last chapter. Just these last two days, another two have come in, and im both bewildered and happy. All I can say is that ive appreciated and benefited from every last comment, And, as you all probably know at this point, Im always happy just to receive a review. To show this, i usually respond! And I will continue to do this unless the poll in my profile shows an overwhelming majority against the idea. So, thank you all!

That said, I really dont think there is anything else to address. This is an exciting chapter, that will reveal tons to you all. I am happy beyond belief to finally be able to present it to you, and I heartily look forward to hearing some more reviews, from all those of you kind enough. Now...I insist you Enjoy!

-- -- --

Ra'uf and Misdreavus remained in their position for a long time. As the fog drew back towards the sea and the sun emerged into the world, however, the moment was forced to an end.

Ra'uf heard them, at the barest edge of his field of hearing, but drawing closer in his direction. The general populace of the city bustling, rustling, and making their approach now that sleep had left them. Very soon, one or another of them would stumble into the clearing, and it was important that at that time no heretical scene be left for the finding. And so, begrudgingly tearing his hand free from its comfortable perch on Misdreavus' head, Ra'uf took his Pokeball from its resting place on the ground, brought the small item back up to eye level, and activated the enlargement mechanism.

Misdreavus seemed still not to have noticed the reemergence of its dreaded enemy, the Pokeball, but the loss of his hand caught the full of her attention. The Pokemon looked upward in confusion and disappointment, the residue warmth from the contact of skins conflicting harshly against the cold, and Ra'uf felt a stab in his heart at the look in her eyes. Trust and love mingled together, aimed at him, and hitting true; his heart wrenched at the sight. He had no idea what he had done to deserve such a gift of love.

And staring back at her, suddenly, Ra'uf was loathe to move in any way whatsoever. The idea of withdrawing her into the Pokeball seemed most wretched of all, and he found himself incapable of making the final movement, of pushing the tiny little button which would put an end to the so momentous moment.

Bustling sounded from just outside the clearing, and the clear tone of voices carried through the air, indistinct in their specifications, but very obviously a sign of nearby humans.

The sound brought Ra'uf painfully back to reality, and reminded him forcefully of necessity. And so, without any further hesitation more than a final, caring glance, Ra'uf activated the Pokeball and watched as it struck the Misdreavus in his arms. Her eyes, wide and staring, became the last echoing image that Ra'uf was to cherish of her, before she again transformed into the translucent ruby energy, compressed, and disappeared into the ball. Ra'uf felt strangely lonely with her gone.

The humans, which had threatened for some time now to break into the clearing, did so with a final spurt of boisterous rustling. Ra'uf had never thought it possible to hate someone so instantly, and for such a petty reason as having unknowingly stumbled into his affairs, but the laughing, swaying men which emerged from the trees instantly earned his dislike. Whether they had meant to or not, they had been the ruin of arguably the most amazing twenty minutes of Ra'uf's life. He found it hard to forgive them on account of being innocent, when they seemed so happy in the wake of their devastating effect.

Ra'uf did not wait long enough to notice or be noticed; The last he saw of them was three men in the peripheral, a fourth partially through an opening in the trees half as wide as he himself seemed to be, all dressed in different hues, and all unnaturally jovial. If Ra'uf had to guess, he would say that the four men were drunk. He had never seen or touched alcohol himself, but he had heard horror stories of the substance from Mr. Gershom, and the behavior of the men seemed an accurate portrayal of the terrors described.

Their rough, explosive guffawing followed Ra'uf out of the clearing, and had him flushing with barely contained irritation by the time he had pushed through the last of the trees and returned to the cement walkway beyond.

-- -- --

The sun was making a slow debut into the world. Ra'uf watched it inch slowly over the horizon, the promise of light crawling ever closer, but never quite arriving. The dim street lamps, barely brighter unrestrained then when toned down by request of the trainer school, remained the leading force of light guiding Ra'uf's feet down the pathway. The world around him, of which he had been immensely curious of now for two days constantly and five years occasionally, remained well hidden beyond the narrow reach of the lamps, so that Ra'uf found himself starting to think of the useless things with a certain level of disdain.

_Just a little dimmer, _he thought vaguely, _and I would officially have done better to bring a flashlight._

Flashlights, however, cost about as much as an arm, a leg, and a lung. There were certain handy tools which had taken on a criminally large value when any corporation, anywhere, realized that the caravans had a particular use for them. Artificial light, an absolute necessity along the trade routes, had quickly become one of the most overpriced of all. Ra'uf was about as likely to obtain one on his travels as to have a wild Pokemon come out of the blue and attempt to hug him one day. The odds of the Pokemon School giving him one as gift was on par with even less likely things.

Thoughts like these occupied Ra'uf's mind as he walked, dawn never loosening from its seemingly perpetual state of beginning. His heart, however, had been absorbed into a realm where only Misdreavus existed, and replayed certain scenes to different effects over and over again as he went. And always, constantly, it leaned forward into the future, throbbing for the moment when he would again release her from her Pokeball and they would meet.

Ra'uf was anxious for the moment. He hoped intensely that it would happen soon, and that their reunion would prove to be just as amazing and heartfelt as when she had first covered the distance between them.

He would have to wait for it, in all likelihood, the rest of the day, but he was a patient man, and it only gave him something bright and shining to look forward to when the sun, should it ever choose to rise, finally descended. And so, Ra'uf realized in that moment, he already knew how the day would both end and begin. And that was in golden moments of happiness, shared between two. It was everything in between that would be a mystery.

Whether the day followed in the tone of its bright beginning or whether Ra'ufs introduction to the city became the darkest of incidences was soon to be told. It would require living through to find out, but that was exactly what Ra'uf was on his way to do doing.

Nervously now, but with a feeling of inner conviction and fortitude, Ra'uf advanced further down the poorly lit path, and toward the even darker heart of the city; the Metropolis.

-- -- --

When the sun finally rose, it provided Ra'uf with far more awing sights than his eyes could admire all at once. But to take them in turns, and enjoy all that the light allowed for seeing with a focused and singular attention, was perfectly within his abilities.

Ra'uf remembered hearing, once, of how the city of Iwate had looked upon the finding. It had not been pleasant; desolate fields, peppered with boulders and infested with bug Pokemon, had made up the tale. What had since been done to the land was so unbelievable as to be inspiring; It had been utterly transformed.

Wide, stretching plains that flourished for miles in every direction, in which crops of every variety had been nurtured to prolific effect, now grew from the land. The farmers that managed them, Ra'uf thought, must surely have been proud. Every stalk, every tree, looked grown to an emerald perfection and abundance.

The fields appeared, neatly symmetrical and perfectly parallel to their counterparts on the other side of the road, for miles in every direction. To the direction ahead of him, Ra'uf could see them all the way to the point the landscape blurred into the horizon. Behind him, however, the crops stopped short of a second, equally stunning sight.

A great channel, through which fresh water streamed, had been dug around the perimeter of the fields, reminding Ra'uf fantastically of the moats he had read existed in the distant, distant past. The water looked pristine and pure, and shimmered with the same appeal Ra'uf guessed a flame must have held to a moth. If not for the leaping bursts of water from the occasional meeting of wave against rock, which reminded Ra'uf of the intense speed of the current, he would have been tempted to swim. He had always wondered what a dip in flowing water would be like.

Unfortunately, the presence of giant, man-eating beasts in most lakes, rivers and oceans across Tohoku had lead the Pokemon School to discourage visits to the beach. He had never swum in anything deeper than an pool, which the Pokemon School had dug into the indoor area at which simulation battles took place.

After that, two sights remained to amaze. Both were great architectural achievements of Iwate, which Ra'uf could only view in awe from a distance.

Miles ahead of him was the site of the metropolis, first of the two, where the urban world joined to blot out the sun and the darkened clouds slithered amongst the towers. It seemed to Ra'uf that in the direction of the city the world as a whole darkened, and it made him shiver to think the rotten but impressive core his destination.

And all around him rose the fortress wall of Iwate, second of the two. The structure surpassed the metropolis totally as a marvel of human creation; there could be no comparing between them. Tall and silver, the wall rose a hundred feet upwards, circling the whole of the city in a sheet of solid metal. And across the top, patrolling the wall from battlement to battlement, were the Pokemon Trainers.

Ra'uf took a moment to pause and admire them. Hundreds of what had been reduced by the great distance to specs, moving in a great symmetrical tide over the crown of the metal like a disjointed wave. Together, they protected the city, as it was only in their power to do. One day, perhaps, Ra'uf would be among them.

Then, Ra'uf sighed, and turned away.

Really, he reminded himself, that was a great deal of time and effort away. And over such a long course, nothing was predictable. He could die tomorrow, or lose interest the day after. There were a million professions he could set himself towards, and even if he chose one of interest, circumstances could in an instant redirect him elsewhere.

In a job like Pokemon Training, there could be almost no planning ahead, and dreaming was absolute folly. Necessity was the only thing in control of a Pokemon Trainer's life.

The majesty inspired in Ra'uf by the sight of the Pokemon Trainers and their wall faded away, and a blanket of somberness fell around him in its place. Heaving another deep breath, Ra'uf set his feet into motion, and continued with a blank look on his face and heavy thoughts in his mind.

The returned sight of the fields and river, however, took only minutes to purify his mood. Such a marvelous day, it seemed, could not coexist with depression. After only a hundred feet of brooding, Ra'uf was back to admiring his surroundings.

The fields, he thought curiously, contrasted rather sharply with the image Ra'uf had drawn of the human world. By all accounts and experiences, Tohoku was a splendor born of the desperation of a species, now ratty and broken down. Like rusted gold. Once something, but now a crumbling record of what had been.

But Ra'uf was not fully to be deceived. What his eyes showed him was very much less than what the knowledge he held from his five years at the Pokemon School told him, and he knew it was only his inexperience that made a couple working fields seem proof of a prospering world. A couple more sights, he knew, would disprove the idea. The metropolis ahead, for instance, Ra'uf had a growing suspicion would make Iwate seem a poorer place.

But honestly, Ra'uf reminded himself, what he had been taught should really have been enough to erase such delusions. He knew a very great deal about the city. Things that actually, now that he thought about, he would really do good to review. He would, after all, be navigating Iwate for quite a while; it was best to take inventory of all the relating facts stockpiled within him. Perhaps something, seemingly trivial, would be useful in the months ahead.

Yes, something probably would, Ra'uf decided to himself, nodding. Tilting his head away from the cement path he was following, which had just entered into a bought of straightness that would temporarily not require any of his attention, Ra'uf turned first to stare at the fields.

Crops were a major export of Iwate. On the Approximation Scale, an economics measurement used to keep track of the different contributions of different cities, Iwate was credited with the growth of thirty percent of the nation's vegetation. That made them a preciously important resource of the city, which Ra'uf was best left to leave safely alone, unless encountered for sale in the market.

Or more specifically, he thought with a grin, it was best he not train the ever-mischievous Misdreavus within the vicinity of the fields. He could just clearly imagine her getting loose, gaining whiff of the value of the crops, and then embarking on a psychic genocide against them. In the image, she laughed maniacally as she did, and Ra'uf couldn't help but chuckle in a mix of nervous horror and amusement at the thought.

But that was digressing. Ra'uf returned to the task of remembering.

As far as their placement in relation to the city, Crops were fitted in wherever room appeared – which mostly was on the outer edges of the city, below the wall, and inwards several miles. The city itself could be defined by a series of four circles, decreasing in size, that encompassed one another from greatest to smallest. Ra'uf had been impressed by the system; it was neatly simple, but beautifully efficient.

The far-most and greatest circle was the wall, which curved from shoreline to shoreline. Technically, the structure was more a half circle; the land over which the wall would have been made whole had been drowned by the ocean.

The second and first complete circle was the crops and the butchery, the large complex of stations in which catches from the ocean were skinned, gutted, and otherwise dealt with. Within that was the third circle, which could best be described as the urban ring. The general populace of the city could be found here, in order of the tallest and richest houses towards the back, where the ever-important metropolis was most accessible, while the smallest and poorest houses sprouted near the outermost crust.

And the final circle was the metropolis, which tore from the moderate ring of houses below with the distinct outcropping of skyscrapers and tall, corporate buildings. Beyond them, and happily blocked from sight, was the scum nests of the Industries. Like great black holes, it was to these points that all the poverty and desperation of the city gravitated, and was usually forever trapped.

But that was at the very center, where none but the lowest rung had business to go. Before them were the many markets and small scale stores, owned by the citizenry, through which the native people and passing merchants did trade and other business. Ra'uf was not yet sure of the conditions in this portion, but as this was where he would land within the city, he was sure to know before the end of the day.

His foresight into the matter, though, was very bleak. Ra'uf got the general impression he would not be impressed with the metropolis. There was just something in the way the clouds bent around the city, disfigured by the rising smog, and how an artificial dusk seemed to seep from the skyscrapers and creep over the houses below that spoke to him of an as of yet unfamiliar evil, and a piercing heartlessness.

Once again, Ra'uf shuddered. He really was not looking forward to his adventure into the city. There were many parts of Iwate he was indeed fascinated with seeing; but the metropolis was not one of them.

Unfortunately, sightseeing was not a matter of choice. Ra'uf would be dealing, consistently, with the business done within the metropolis as a Pokemon Trainer. Sooner or later, he would be forced to familiarize himself with this particular aspect of the city. It was best he do it now, while he was still ahead of the game, and charged only with exploring. Currently, everything but his direct training of Misdreavus would be a controlled situation, with very little at stake; the moment things turned professional, it would cease to be.

Ra'uf did not want to create the day, for instance, in which he stumbled into the center of town with his hard earned money, small in proportion, and then lost it all on the first purchase because he had failed to master the art of haggling. In order not to, it was pivotal he spent at least a week within the Metropolis before his money began to run out, one of which would need to be his current one.

For the metropolis was the only other place in Iwate with a hotel that was along his route. And as Ra'uf was planning to cross the whole of the city, from his current spot near the walls beginning to far down the shoreline, where the wall ended, the haven of the Metropolis was an important midpoint along the journey. Luckily, Ra'uf would need to spend only a single evening and morning within the metropolis. By then, he would break free upon the opposite side, where another winding cement path of likely flimsy lighting would lead him to one of the two travel havens within the city.

Travel Havens were the names given to the small, private half circle formed at the base of every entrance within a city. There, hotels and open grounds in which the caravans could be parked between trips provide for the merchants, and squished beside them rested a single Pokemon center and Poke Mart each, to provide for the Pokemon Trainers. It was the only part of the city the Trainers owned; no one within the city had the desire to be anywhere within a thousand feet of the mass gathering of Pokemon.

Consequently, a second, miniature wall had been erected around the Travel Havens, to separate them from the city. For Ra'uf, the wall was a mixed creation. It would take some time for discovery, before Ra'uf could decide to be thankful or resentful for the separation.

And that was it. Ra'uf's mind could find no more knowledge, hidden in the depths of his consciousness, to draw forward and analyze.

Well, that was alright, as for as Ra'uf was concerned. It was not conclusive, what he had covered, but there was no helping that. What would come, would come. Ra'uf had leaned this a long time ago. You did what preparing you could, and then quieted your mind, and tried hard to enjoy the period of waiting.

And Ra'uf had done what preparing he could. All that was left to do was continue to follow his feet down the winding path, and enjoy the brightening world around him.

For all their purpose, worth and otherwise, the crops had a simple beauty to them that was just as much worth pondering as their weight on the Approximation Scale. The same could be said about the river, in which rows of turbines captured the powerful currents and transformed them to resources, but on the surfaces reflected the still colorful hue of the atmosphere.

Sinking back into the handsomeness of the land, Ra'uf cast his thoughts to the side, and quickened to a brisk pace. The path was clear and straight for another couple hundred feet, so he saw no reason not to close his eyes and soak up warmth from the increasing sunlight.

And as a final comfort, there was always the pulsing-hot form of Misdreavus in her Pokeball, around which he could wrap his frozen fingers, and grip tightly.

– – –

Ra'uf began to worry again when the third ring drew forward from the horizon.

From the positioning of the sun, Ra'uf knew that two hours had passed along the road, and that it must now have been about nine in the morning. He had been lucky, in a sense; he had not passed a single stranger along the way. The solitude had been pleasant. It was what he was used to.

Now, the beginning of the great and gradual rise of housings threatened to break the monotony. Already, he could see merchant parties moving in the opposite direction down different routes, hundreds of feet over from his own. These, Ra'uf noted with a mix of gentle amusement and irritation, were considerably better lit than the path he had chosen, and suddenly it made a great deal of sense why he had seen no one but himself. The roads the merchants were taking were also wider and cleaner.

All routes, however, lead down the same, darkening path towards the same dark center that was the metropolis. The skyscrapers, which appeared clearly like monoliths above even the highest of homes, had become drastically intimidating in their proximity. Ra'uf found himself avoiding, and dreading, the sight of them.

His own path wound for another thirty yards or so and then converged with the others. Ra'uf paused in his walking, and took a moment to breathe, and steel himself. It was strange, he noticed, how the weather had changed. First had been the mist and clouds. Then, briefly, the sun had dominated the sky, and it had been light all around.

As the distance between him and the city had closed, however, a curtain of rainclouds and smog had drawn around it, and darkness had gradually returned. Presently, the sun had completely disappeared, and the street lamps were once again the only thing lighting the way. Ra'uf mourned its loss, but also admired the contrast of the city against the dark. The skyscrapers glowed with light, all the way to the tallest floors, so that it seemed the sun had fallen from the sky and established itself among the buildings.

Ra'uf thought it an irony, that the metropolis would be both the cause and solvency of the darkness. It made the giant thing seem a self-dependent entity through which the merchants and trainers were bound to pass. It made Ra'uf hesitate more than ever, to set foot in a place that had ability to capture you and bind you in iron shackles to its will.

Frowning, Ra'uf shook the thought. The city may have seemed to pulse with a terrifying power, but the truth was that, so long as he watched his step, he was in no danger. None of the vices through which the industries hooked its victims were present in him; he was not penniless, uneducated, or desperate.

He would walk into the city, and out of it, without a scratch. There was nothing to be afraid of.

Releasing his breath, Ra'uf continued on, towards the wind in the road where all the paths joined into a single, thick road. The air was thick and foul with smog, and the land seemed to pulse under the aura of the metropolis, but Ra'uf let none of it affect him.

Ra'uf covered the hundred feet or so to the juncture swiftly. Once all the roads had merged, however, he once again came to a stop. As he did, a gust of wind swept over him, and Ra'uf was reminded of the temperature, which had dropped twofold in the last hour. It had become frigid and wet, with the threat of rain sometime during the day, and Ra'uf took a moment to unstrap the jacket he had taken off earlier from his waist and once again equip himself with it.

Aside of him, a passing group of merchants strolled on, the first human beings to pass since the day's beginning.

Ra'uf saw that he had once again been given a choice to make. In front of him, the thick path continued on for another twenty feet, at which point it suddenly transformed into a tunnel. Completely covered by cement, the tunnel dipped at an angle, that Ra'uf could see from where he was at lead to an indeterminable, but surely great, distance underground. Not far past where the tunnel appeared, the first occupants of the Urban Ring appeared.

But the tunnel was not the only way available to him. At the point which the road lead underground, two separate paths, half the size, branched off from the main, and swerved into the forest of homes beyond. What seemed strangest to Ra'uf, was that while the main road was clearly the greatest, neatest, and most furnished of the three, not a single soul moved along it.

Instead, the tiny, broken up stream of travelers moved entirely along the other two roads.

Ra'uf was baffled by this. His head swiveled between the roads on the right, left and center, and tried to decide which of the three to take. For some reason, he got the impression that the tunnel was meant for himself, and yet it made no sense that the merchants would be avoiding it. Was there, perhaps, a breakdown inside it? A roadblock he was not aware of? There was nothing to indicate one, and yet no other explanation was indicated by anything else, either. Then, a possible, distasteful explanation came feebly to mind.

Perhaps the road was meant for him, and was traveled by no one else because it had been set aside for Pokemon Trainers – as another means of separating them from the crowd, and keeping the Pokemon they carried at arms distance. As a means of segregation.

Again, Ra'uf frowned, but a cold that had nothing to do with the weather ran over him. He had a sneaking suspicion that of all the unlikely possibilities, that one was true. It made him sad to think it. Society really had no understanding at all, if it would quarantine Pokemon Trainers so completely. The fact was, nothing short of a Pokemon Trainer with the intention to could cause a Pokemon's escape from its Pokemon ball.

And a Pokemon Trainer that meant to let loose its Pokemon in the middle of the city would not be stopped by a tunnel it was meekly hoped he would take. Nor a wall, nor all the other distinctive factors they lathered him in, such as clothing and dialect. And hatred, which they had stockpiled the most on, would do least of all. It was utterly meaningless, this segregation. It only created the bitter feelings that had the true ability to endanger the citizenry.

Ra'uf could attest to it himself. It left a cold, empty feeling in his chest, to think that the tunnel was meant to bar him from the other travelers. He had previously lead a life of constant seclusion; he could bare another one, but had dearly hoped, up to that point, not to.

And so Ra'uf chose not to think the middle road was meant for Pokemon Trainers only. Instead, he convinced himself of other things. Surely, it made much more sense that such a great road was in use by everyone, and was only empty at the moment because of a roadblock.

And even if there was no roadblock, and the road was abandoned for some other reason, Ra'uf would have preferred to travel along the other two and enjoy the sights. He had never seen how normal people lived. And so, with an assuring nod to himself, Ra'uf walked forward to where the tunnel began and the roads branched, and then turned sharply left.

– – –

Ra'uf continued for quite some time, and with every step he took, began to believe, more and more, that he had chosen wrongly. That in picking a surface road, he had deluded himself away from believing the simple, horrible truth. There had been no roadblock.

The way the passerby treated him was the greatest hint. The traffic in and out of the city was light, so that when a merchant and Ra'uf passed, there eyes caught only the form of one another. For Ra'uf, it was plain to see that, first off, none of the men and women he spied wore the traditional colors and uniform of the Pokemon Trainer. For the merchants, it was equally clear that Ra'uf did.

Consequently, everyone he passed gave him cautious, alarmed looks, and then shuffled quickly around him. The girth he received also bespoke that he was in the terribly wrong place. It had long ago begun to make Ra'uf nervous. A cold sweat had broken over him, and upon every such encounter he faced rigidly forward and did his best to appear as innocuous as possible, as his fear traced a liquid trail down his back.

Currently, there was once again no one in sight. Ra'uf's latest encounter had been just moments before, with a hardened seeming young women who refused to so much as look at him after the first glance. She had done little to improve his mood, or grant him comfort, but Ra'uf pushed her from his mind. Instead, he turned his attention to the landscape, the mystery of which had aided in luring him into his current predicament.

Slanted, dirty buildings, wrecked by graffiti and vandalism, and all no more than a single story high had been the treasure Ra'uf found. The sight of them had a dual effect; on one hand, they stirred his sympathies, and summoned a terrible sinking feeling in his heart in imagining the life one must have lead to live in such a place; and on the other hand, they made him even more nervous.

There was never anything good to be said about desperation, and the buildings around him bled it, thick rivulets that spilled and flowed down the cracked and dirtied streets between them. It was the pervasive quality of the land, and Ra'uf knew he was in danger of it. Poverty incited people to do things that, from an ethical standpoint, no one wanted to do, and that people in any scenario never wanted done to themselves.

Combined with the smell, the cold and the dark, it made the neighborhood through which Ra'uf traveled seem the most rotten of places, and deeply unwelcoming. The road he was on carried him on a winding route, which trailed across the narrow streets between houses and then carried him to the block beyond through clefts between buildings. He was directly within the world of the poor.

And yet, there was a protected, removed quality to the path. Ra'uf got the impression that the people living in the area generally kept clear of the trail. Not that there were many people to be seen; it was those amongst these buildings, who lived on this base echelon, that were taken by the factories. Industry work was easy to be forced into, and terribly difficult to escape. A fixed income, low as was legal, made sure that progression for the fallen was impossible. Those born poor simply had nothing, and no chance of anything.

Every man in every house down every one of the blocks had woken early and walked to a factory, where he would stay very late. The women who did not do this as well did so specifically in order to look after their children, and it was only these and the raggedly dressed children that Ra'uf spied occasionally departing their houses or flitting between windows.

Ra'uf had been made intimately familiar of this sort of life within the Pokemon School; Mr. Gershom had made it clear that, aside from death, it was the single alternative to success in the world of Pokemon Training. If any one of them couldn't make it as a Trainer, they would have to make it as worker. It had been meant to scare him and the others into working hard. Aside from traumatizing them, it had done a good job of that, as well.

Ra'uf spent twenty minutes amongst these houses. Then, upon entering through another cleft in the wall, he found the quality and size improved upon the other side. He had moved up a level on the social level. It was now the middle class homes that Ra'uf was amongst.

The difference was distinct, and as terrible as Ra'uf felt to admit it, pleasant. Whereas the houses of the poor had been dirty and broken down, the middle-class kept all theirs in a neat and stable state. All walls and roofs could be noted for being one color, rather than a blend of different graffiti attacks. The smell was also considerably better. Ra'uf felt he had walked, with startling suddenness, into an all together cleaner world.

Even the lives of the people in these homes, he sensed, were more free of dirt on the human level; corruption, ignorance, and desperation were all so much a less a part of these peoples lives. It made Ra'uf glad to see, that even with the rows and rows of unfortunate, there were still those who lived in general comfort and happiness. The Human world still had hope for it, he felt, so long as that remained the case.

At this point, another small group of merchants came out from the opposite side of the street, and Ra'uf froze. This group, he noticed, was particularly large. The greatest he had passed up to that point had been two, walking side by side and chatting animatedly. This one was a party of four, twice as large, and twice, Ra'uf felt, as threatening.

Fear, which had departed while Ra'uf stared sadly at his surroundings, returned powerfully. It paralyzed him. Leaning against the side of the last remaining third-class building before the opening of the second class, Ra'uf found he couldn't move, could barely breathe, as the merchants made their way towards him.

His mind went blank. All he could feel was the terror and the sweat, soaking his shirt, and dripping down his face, itching wherever it touched.

Then, the party drew within ten feet of Ra'uf, and his heart, which had up to that point been gradually gaining pace, stopped. What would they do, now that they had seen him? A lone person would never have the courage to stand up to a Pokemon Trainer, but a group of four?

And it was clear, from the way they and everyone else were looking at him, that he had taken the wrong way. The tunnel had been meant for him. Segregation, horrible and cold, was in full effect. He was its victim.

The group saw him then. All four looked, and collectively, their eyes raised. He was not supposed to be there, they were recognizing, and for a moment the entire group paused in indecision and shock.

And then, after another moment, started up, and passed him by without a second glance. A slight jump in their step indicated fear.

Ra'uf breathed. The fog in his brain lifted, the terror over his being vanished, and the shaking in his legs, which he had not noticed, ceased. They had done nothing to him. He was perfectly alright. He felt like laughing in relief, and did so slightly, chuckling a light chuckle as he heaved himself off the wall and continued on his way.

Half a minute later, he had passed through another chink, and now it was the middle class world that he saw on both sides of the street. The impoverished one had been left behind.

– – –

It started to rain.

Ra'uf did not like the development. He was a great fan of the rain; but that was when he was comfortably inside, staring out at it through the window and enjoying the harsh patter of it on the ceiling. Outside, and caught in the center of it, he found himself viewing the rain in an entirely more negative way.

Along with the falling water came also a sudden onslaught of mist, rolled over from the sea, and a severe drop in the temperature. The air, which before had been unpleasantly frigid, became unbearably cold. Ra'uf was forced to take a moment to stop under some shelter, in the form of a balcony from one of the nearby houses, and unpack some of the heavier dress from his bag.

Ra'uf departed again, and returned to the onslaught, when he had been clothed in an additional two layers of shirt and covered over by a poncho. The hood he drew over his head. That done, the cold was fended off, and the rain became a bearable burden that primarily bothered his unprotected face.

Ra'uf continued in this way for another short while. His usual means of telling time, the sun, had been blotted out by the clouds, so there was no way to tell how long he had been beneath the rain. There was no way to tell how long he had journeyed along the path as it winded through the middle class. There was no way to tell how many hours of the day as a whole had passed.

And so Ra'uf was left, utterly disoriented, in the pounding rain. It, and a sudden rise in the winds, bashed him from every side. His small form, frail before nature, struggled to keep along the path. The wind would push him back, and then suddenly switch directions, so that it was carrying him forward on his own momentum. In this way, Ra'uf fell several times, and was otherwise forced to combat the gale as it pushed him in every which direction.

It did not take long for Ra'uf's mood to sour. Bullied by the wind and bashed by the rain, he quickly found himself wishing to be in the harbored center of the metropolis, that, foul as it was, offered protection.

Sniffing, Ra'uf finally collapsed, leaning into the juncture where a chinks met the side of a house. Here, the homes offered protection from two sides, the chink from a third, and only a marginal portion of the storm could get at him. It was the best shelter he could find, in his current situation.

Silently, Ra'uf mused on what he could do. He was cold, tired, and wet. His nose had long since begun to run, and had continued to do so frustratingly up to that very point. It was getting raw from his rubbing it, and the rest of his face, which the poncho did not protect, had already been beaten into the state by the rain. He was not happy.

But he was a patient man. Snuggled into the corner he was at, Ra'uf did his best to ignore his many aches and bothers, and focus on his situation. On the bright side, the rain seemed to have scared away the merchants, and he had suffered no more encounters since his last with the four-person perhaps it had melted them. Ra'uf was beginning to doubt the humanity of all these terrible people around him; they seemed much more akin to the horribleness of the wicked witch of the west than himself.

Like the merchants had mostly like done, however, he would need to find a more adequate shelter. It was a shame, in a way. He had meant to spend the day perusing the Metropolis, exploring its every foul detail. They were important things to note, and a special sight to see. As evil as it seemed, it was also the heart of human activity in Iwate. If he wanted to gain a clear sense of the people, he would need to watch them at work, in the metropolis.

By instinct alone, Ra'uf guessed that it was now eleven O clock. If he could make it to the metropolis, there was still the chance of having the day he had meant to have. It would mean pushing through the rain, or waiting hopefully for it to abate soon, but Ra'uf could do it. And realistically, there was nothing else for Ra'uf to do.

Ra'uf sighed, and leaned back into his wall. There was something nice, in a way, about having your options clearly and simply before you. On the other hand, there was nothing nice, whatsoever, about having to traverse a storm.

But it was what he would have to do. Heaving himself up, Ra'uf wiped his face, and stood to turn towards the brief alleyway that led to the next block. From where he was at, it seemed that there was another four blocks of middle class, before another rise in height amongst the structures signaled the site of the first and final class. From there, he estimated it another three blocks to the metropolis.

It was an odd sort of mercy. All the other classes had gone on for at least ten blocks. The rich of Iwate, it seemed, were slightest in number. Their privileged center would be the easiest to plow through. But Ra'uf accepted the gift for what it was, and let all bitter and cynical thoughts about riches drop away. They were things to consider on a different day, in a different situation. Perhaps under the roof of a Cafe. Ra'uf had always dreamed of visiting one of those.

Ra'uf started forward, and then stopped, and turned back to the chink. Stopping before it, he briefly patted the thing in thanks. Then, he turned back the other direction, and continued on against the rain, his hand raised before his face as an ineffectual shield.

Ra'uf paused before the exit to the alleyway, lowered his arm, and stared across the thirty feet or so that separated him from the other side. That was thirty feet in the rain, another five in the safety of an alleyway, and then over again, until he reached the protection of the skyscrapers.

Ra'uf sighed again, and then prepared for the exposure. Lowering himself down and bending slightly forward, Ra'uf got into position for a sprint, and then launched into the activity. Darting out of the alleyway, a solid sheet of rain met him, and the wind buffeted as cruelly as ever, but Ra'uf pressed onwards.

What stopped him, midway across the street, was the scream.

Ra'uf jolted, froze in his tracks, and stared wildly to the left, where the sound had come. The scream had been faint, inhibited as it was by the pounding of the rain, but Ra'uf was sure of what he had heard. And it had not been the sort of scream that was ignorable with an easy conscious; it had been a cry of desperate, pressing distress.

Ra'uf could not walk away from a sound like that. He was obligated, in every way, to at least check its source.

Ra'uf groaned. It was cold and wet. The sort of day best reserved for late night reading sessions by a fire, and less so for rescue missions. But he would not leave a man, as it sounded to be, to die in this weather, either.

His heart pounding fast, Ra'uf bolted from the path. Instantly, as his feet left the well paved surface of road, a wave of regret over the decision hit him. What was he doing? It was a noble sentiment, rescue, but the people of Iwate did not want his help. He was a Pokemon Trainer. He had been unwelcome along the road. Here he was utterly out of place. In their mind, whatever aid he carried would forever be overshadowed by the risk tucked in his pocket.

But Ra'uf continued, and shook the thought. No. Whatever the people of Tohoku felt, this was equal parts about him as it was the man in trouble. If Ra'uf did nothing, whoever it was had screamed may or may not have survived. For himself, though, there would be a permanent stain on his soul. There would be no erasing the moment that, as far as was decipherable, he let a man die.

Who had screamed quickly became apparent. Ra'uf weaved, teetering under the influence of the wind, past only a dozen houses before a scene of calamity that contrasted sharply with the placid surroundings drew his attention. The sight sent a fresh stream of adrenaline coursing through his system, and doubled the speed of both Ra'uf's heartbeat and legs.

Unlike the third class houses, all of the middle class houses reached a second story high, at which were built balconies of varying sizes. Upon the balcony of this house was the man Ra'uf guessed had made the scream; for he was dangling ten feet above the ground, gripping tightly to the banister, and swaying with the wind. More importantly, it was not hard to tell, even from a distance, that the man was slipping.

Ra'uf panicked. There were a great many precarious situations he was equipped, on knowledge alone, to handle. There had been no courses in the Pokemon school, however, on breaking the fall of what appeared to be a middle-aged and portly man. And from the way the mans hands were clawing helplessly at the railing, he knew he would not have long to imagine a way.

In the brief course of a second, Ra'uf strained for a solution. His mind raced. What broke a fall? Something soft. And what did he have upon him that was soft? Only the pack on his back. Not nearly substantial enough.

And then the second passed, and the man fell.

Ra'uf had never ceased to run, and in the moment the man began to drop only four feet separated him from the spot he suspected the man would land. In the precious few moments remaining to him, Ra'uf covered that distance. His own body was neither soft nor substantial, but it was better than nothing. Starved of any other possibilities, it was simply all that was left to do.

Ra'uf prepared himself in two ways; one, he stretched out his arms and braced his feet, so that he was in position to catch the man; and secondly, he leaned backwards, so that his backpack faced the ground.

The moment of impact between Ra'uf and the man was harsher than he had expected it to be. Perhaps due to the mans considerable girth, Ra'uf felt vaguely like he had been struck full on by a speeding bulldozer, and collapsed accordingly. His other impression of the moment was of terrible pain, located worst along his barely recovered right arm.

Due to the angle Ra'uf had positioned himself in, the collision forced him backwards and onto his back, where his pack did well to cushion the fall. The only unfortunate, unexpected consequence of Ra'uf's impromptu plan was the large pan buried within, which did quite the opposite of cushion in the area of his shoulder.

But Ra'uf had done it. The man was saved.

Saved, but not happy, it would seem. As he had fallen, the man had screamed in shameless terror, but now that his live was assured to continue the shame seemed to have caught up with him. In addition, though he had utterly crushed Ra'uf with his ample mass, he was largely more considerate of his own bruises from the fall. with an irate grunt and groan, the man rolled over and off Ra'uf, causing him to gasp as the air was pressed from his lungs. It was of great relief, on part of both Ra'uf and the man, when the later had separated himself from the former and climbed onto his own two feet.

The man, Ra'uf noticed now, still panting and aching from the experience, had something of a regal air to him. His face was round as his body, but in it were hints of a decayed handsomeness, which had perhaps flourished in his youth. The hair was black, the skin hairy, and the eyes narrow and keen.

Instantly, Ra'uf feared him. The man looked to be unusually perceptive, and the last thing he needed in that moment was an encounter with someone gifted in spotting subtleties. In addition, Ra'uf knew he himself had no skill in the sophistry of communication. If it came to defending himself, Ra'uf would fail, and fail quickly.

He needed to leave. To accept whatever thanks came his way and depart, swiftly, before the moment had the chance to escalate darkly downwards.

Unfortunately, the man spoke first.

"You saved me, eh? Well, thank you, young man," he grunted, staring at Ra'uf through the corner of his eyes. "This storm caught me unawares. I was sleeping on my balcony with the rain came. It woke me up, and when I got up to head inside I tripped and fell. The rest you saw, I believe. And heard."

The man seemed unhappy with that last bit, so Ra'uf chose wisely not to respond. When, he didn't, the man grunted again. The beginnings of further discourse appeared on his lips, but a particularly vicious sweep of wind interrupted it, and in that moment both Ra'uf and the man were reminded of the storm.

The man rose his arm against the rain. "Come inside, young man! Lets get out of this rain! No, Come in! I must repay the man who saved my life!"

Ra'uf had made to exit the other direction, away from the man and his house and further into the wretched rain, but the mans insistence caught him in his tracks. This was not the sort of situation he knew how to deal with, he thought grimly to himself, frowning heavily. There were social particularities all over it, and Ra'uf was inadequate with all of them.

But he also did not quite have the conviction to break from the man's stare and run. Neither, though, could he allow himself to enter the man's home. To do so would be lethal. So he stood, frozen, in indecision.

The man, however, did not have the patience to wait for Ra'uf to make a decision. Grunting another time, in frustration, he spoke again, this time with a desperate and conceding note in his voice.

" Alright, Alright! I can see you're busy, so I wont force you to stay! But at least come to the door – _this blasted rain! _- and let me give you something in gratitude! I cant just let you go on a good conscious!"'

The man shouted, and this time, Ra'uf felt it safe to acquiesce. If he went only to the man's door, and stayed there long enough to receive whatever gift would appease the man's sense of honor, he could leave then without having been discovered or offended the terrifying creature in front of him.

And so, with only a slight trace of reluctance and a much greater deal of eagerness to get the encounter over with, Ra'uf turned and walked to the Man's door. The man himself had turned heel and sprinted inside after the first step Ra'uf had taken. The door he left fully open, and Ra'uf stopped before it, where a homely welcome mat below and the weather-obstructing balcony above gave the spot a sense of comfort.

If not for Ra'uf's terror that it was some form of pistol the man would be returning with, and not a precious gift in return for his life having been saved, Ra'uf would have felt entirely content waiting on his doorstep. As it was, the very walls of the comfortable looking home Ra'uf could catch a glimpse of beyond the door seemed to emanate a deadly hostility.

The man did not take long fetching his gift, which suited Ra'uf just fine. In all honesty, he cared very little what item was soon to be imparted to him. The more important thing was preserving his own safety, which he was beginning to feel he had already put unreasonably at risk just by staying where he was.

When the man returned to the door with a thick bag in his hand, Ra'uf paid the item almost no mind until it had been thrust in his face.

"Here," The man spoke, once again eying Ra'uf. "This is quite a lot of wealth. As you can see, I am in a fairly comfortable position, so I can afford to lose it. I had been saving up for a vacation to Hiraizuma, but a life is worth a great deal more than even a trip to that wonderful place, by my reckoning. So go on! Take it. And you can go now, if you want."

Ra'uf would have liked nothing more. Taking the bag gratefully and clumsily from the man's impatient hands, Ra'uf thought of something to say in thanks, but again, his mind failed him. So, nodding thankfully but silently, Ra'uf turned around to leave.

And heard the great gasp which sounded behind him as he did.

"You!" The Man's voice spoke again behind him, this time carrying an entirely different note. " _You!...You're..._ POKEMON TRAINER! POKEMON TRAINER! THERE'S A POKEMON TRAINER HERE! EVERYBODY, QUICK, COME OUT! A POKEMON TRAINER!"

The man's voice was like an alarm, to which the occupants of other houses responded. Ra'uf could only watch in horror as people, who had not exited their houses when the man had been screaming for help, rallied to his new call. From the houses all around him, on his left and right, emerged an odd assortment of homebodies.

Who were armed with an even odder assortment of household items.

Ra'uf went cold. Citizenry were emerging from every direction for ten houses in every direction, and in their arms came with them makeshift clubs and forks. In the arms of some, kitchen knifes the length of an arm stood rigidly at attention, ready for the job ahead. These made Ra'uf pale most of all.

His only relief rested in that, in all the sea of rippling armament, there was not a single gun.

That was a great, and also tiny, microscopic consolation. Ra'uf knew, at least, that he would not die in a single, unavoidable moment without one. No; he would die in a terrifying surge, as the people and weapons rose up against him, and then crashed down in unity. They would doom him. Their every step was to doom him. If he did not move now, he would die.

And it was in that moment that Ra'uf realized he had to _move._

Panicked, Ra'uf rotated his head in every direction, searching for an escape route that was not to be found. It was hard for him to believe what he was seeing. Was there really such a prejudice, that he would be killed on sight, just for intruding? That was how it looked to be.

And what of the life he had saved? Was it still a debt paid, in the man's opinion, if Ra'uf died, and he pried the heavy bag of money from his corpse? Where was the justice, amongst all these Humans?

And of all the things Ra'uf felt in that moment, Human was not one of them. He felt like a bird with clipped wings that had been tossed carelessly into a corner by its owner, and now had no way to retreat as the cats descended. His heart had long since began to pound, and aside from the terror, was the questioning. How had the man _known_?

Behind him came a sharp push, and in a reeling second Ra'uf's search for a way out came to screeching end as he went careening to the ground.

The man had pushed him, he realized as he landed, hard, upon his face and stomach. When he had regained his bearings enough to return to his knees, and then his feet, the group of common people turned mob had finished closing him in. A wide circle, twenty people around by Ra'uf's estimation, then began to constrict as they approached.

The circle came to a halt fifteen feet away from him, and stood still to watch him pant his fear, which with every breath turned to cold mist and was swept away by the wind. Over them all, the rain fell as consistently and terribly as ever, pounding over the great assembly of rain jackets and coats which the crowd had adorned.

And for a second, only nature moved, as Ra'uf turned in disbelief and helpless terror to see himself surrounded from every direction.

Then, the man from earlier spoke.

"You see there, on his back? That Poncho says it clearly on its back. This young man is a Pokemon Trainer. And that means he has brought a Pokemon into our midst!"

A stir from the crowd, as various eyes affirmed what had been said and became aware of the danger before them. The man continued.

"The rules are clear! Everybody knows that Pokemon Trainers are expressly forbidden to bring their monsters near our homes! Our lives and families have all been put at risk by this young man's doing! What do you have to say for yourself, young man? Why did you not take the tunnel!?"

With that, the crowd, which had been turned raptly to its speaker, turned wholly to Ra'uf.

Ra'uf searched for the words, but as they always did, they never came. His mouth opened and closed with different thoughts, but no sound came. What could he say? I am innocent? I did not take the tunnel because I was naive and did not know any better, and then came this way because I heard that man – yes, that one there, condemning me now – scream. Even his mind mocked the words.

So Ra'uf did instead the only thing he knew how to do. He opposed them in silence, and in action.

Reaching past his poncho and into his pocket, he drew forth the Pokeball of Misdreavus, and with a small click caused the item to expand. The sudden movement did little to alarm the crowd, but as the Pokeball went from invisibly small to impossible for any one of the crowd not to notice, they reacted. With a collective gasp and recoil, they moved a step away from the Pokeball and Ra'uf, their resolve faltering before the feared device.

And then, like the recollecting of a wave recently crashed to shore, the intensity from before returned as the rising of a titan. But the neat formation of the circle, the carefully organized and civilized withholding of their violence, vanished. Unwittingly, Ra'uf had brought forward a catalyst, and now, with desperate surge, the people has been spurred into chaos.

Chaos that was aimed at him, and with the falling of a great many shouts and the shuffling of feet and pounding of rain, landed.

Arms tore at him. Furniture flew at him. Where the fists and weapons collided, there was pain, and at all times in between was disorientation. The mob thrust him this way and that, spinning him around as they tore and clawed at him, until it was the ground they were bringing him into, and their hate began to connect to him through the falling of their boots.

Whatever remnants of courage, conviction, and restrain that Ra'uf had left vanished as well. Desperately, and with only his own flickering well being in mind now, Ra'uf acted in the single way remaining to him. He released Misdreavus.

The beam of red shot forward, blinding those nearest to him and sending them away, screaming in pain. The rest hesitated in their frenzy, and watched as the light coalesced. When it began to take the form of a creature, the mood underwent another dramatic shift. Fear, the tendrils of which had previously withdrawn from all but Ra'uf, stretched out again over the area.

When Misdreavus took full form, every Human still on its feet jumped backwards or let loose a cry or both. The new development had once again stilled the arena, and the collective attention went to Misdreavus, as her eyes went from closed, and opened.

Confusion was the first thing that took her, staring out across the mass of unfamiliar humans and not finding her Ra'uf anywhere amongst them. What came then was a devilish desire to cause mayhem among these helpless strangers, and her lips curled into an ominous grin that sent a ripple of flinches through the crowd.

The emotion she settled on, however, was rage, when in looking around she found her Ra'uf beaten and gasping on the ground.

With a terrible shriek, that sent every man and women in the vicinities hands to their ears, Misdreavus announced her displeasure. How _dare_ they hurt this man who had just recently come to mean so much to her? She would save him, at all costs. And what happened to these destructive fiends, lowly thieves, in the process was of no consequence.

Swooping down, Misdreavus parted the crowd where it was thickest and nearest to Ra'uf, either knocking aside those in her way or sending them flying to the side on their own desperate volition. When Ra'uf's body had been entirely uncovered, Misdreavus paused to send him a tender look, and then made her eyes glow.

In the mess that followed, Ra'uf, who had covered his face with his arms for protection, missed most of what went on. His ears, however, picked up on the many shouts and screams, some of which sounded to him to be coming from the air rather than the ground.

His immediate reaction was to feel a wave of warmth and gratitude towards his Misdreavus. She had saved his life, and as wonderful as it was have it, it was also wonderful that she cared enough to give it to him. He wondered, in that moment, if there was any creature he loved more.

Then, another scream rent the air, and Ra'uf realized that she was almost certainly going overboard in his name. He would need to uncover his face, ignore his bruises, and stop her.

The rain felt good, for a change, on his throbbing face. It felt good on all of him, for that matter. Leaning slowly forward, Ra'uf lifted himself to his knees, and then took the lunge to his feet. Swaying for a moment, his knees did not buckle beneath him, and the strength to stand stayed in him.

The sight clear to him in his new position was of a group of fleeing, screaming civilians, terrorized by Misdreavus. Here and there was the slumped over bodies of those unconscious or worse, who looked to have been thrown psychically through the air. Ra'uf felt sick and weak looking at them, and did not like to think of their true condition.

The threat, it seemed, had abated.

Another screech sounded the air, but this one he recognized as belonging to Misdreavus, and as an exclamation of happiness. Following the sound came the sounder, and with a happy cackle his purple deviant landed to a hover directly in front of him, grinning.

Slowly, Ra'uf managed to grin in return. Thank you, he meant to her.

Misdreavus shined under the praise. Turning towards the way Ra'uf remembered the path to be, Ra'uf sent her a second message; come. Beckoning with his head, Ra'uf turned towards the path and ran. Bobbing jubilantly behind him, Misdreavus followed.


	10. Finding Warmth

Ra'uf cleared from the site of turmoil with haste in his step and adrenaline in his short, panting breaths. Beside him, Misdreavus cleared from the very same situation in an apparent state of glee, cackling happily and performing the occasional loop as she went. Together, they advanced in their own respective states of natural reaction, and stopped only when the averted threat was a full three blocks behind them.

Ra'uf felt like all his senses had heightened, and the world stood out to him in a way that made its usual appearance seem modest. Shadows leaned with an unusual power, invoking as much fear and suspicion as did the empty alleyways and houses which bred them. The wind and rain seemed like the barrage of a machine gun, with each strike having its own harsh and distinct impact, so that Ra'uf felt constantly like swatting at it.

But towering above all, dominating and looming, was the lusterless gloom of the city.

Ra'uf had collapsed against the side of a building, breathing hard, and allowed himself to slide smoothly to the ground. He felt sick, emotionally and physically. His whole body throbbed from the encounter. The sky seemed to be dropping gray with the rain, both features permeating the avenues, so that a joyless lifelessness ran down the building walls as thickly as the water. Terrible, soul draining rivulets, that captured Ra'uf's eye and held him staring.

Where had the goodness gone from this world? It was nowhere in sight, as far as Ra'uf could tell. Only a terrible blackness, which seemed at first to have been caused by the storm, but which he now felt emanated from the great rows of dark hearts housed around him. For a moment, it was all Ra'uf could see, and the infecting hopelessness took him. It seemed that only devils walked the earth, dressed in all variety of human skins, in this world he had been cruelly assigned to.

Then, Misdreavus reentered his sight with a particularly gleeful shriek and mid-air flip, and the effect was broken.

Ra'uf shook off the depression, which had gripped him so strongly in the aftermath of his encounter, and laughed to himself at the sight of his silly and faithful ghoul. Well, perhaps that truly was the case, and no human he would ever find would be of the respectable character he longed for. But here in front of him, perfectly alien and supposedly evil, was the specimen he had been looking for all along. In his Pokemon alternative to human interaction, perhaps, he would find the friendships he had forever been seeking.

Like a great beacon, joy and wonder radiated outwards from his Misdreavus and lit the world around her, until it seemed again like a place worth living in. Forgetting the pain in his limbs and pushing the bitterness from his heart, Ra'uf wiped his mouth, where a small portion of blood had gathered, and rose back to his feet.

The day was still young, Ra'uf knew. Terrible and juvenile, with lots of potential. Ra'uf could do any one of many things with it. He could, for instance, spend the rest of the day recovering, flee from the officially wretched metropolis, and take a roundabout route that circumnavigated the city but still made it to his destination.

Or he could continue onwards, as planned, and as was probably best to do. It would, at least, be the least cowardly action, and Ra'uf had never been fond of cowardice. It also ensured he received his proper introduction to mainstream society, and the particular branch of it that was reserved for himself.

Both were sorely tempting, to Ra'uf's mind, and it was necessary that one or the other be chosen quickly. The ever-harsh rain, and a persisting sense of urgency and paranoia that had him glancing from the corner of his eyes for pursuers from the mob, demanded he not dally in the decision making process.

So with a sigh, Ra'uf gave a last mournful glance to the paved and empty streets that led to the easy way out, and then turned back to the smoggy towers of the metropolis. Avoiding this hardship now, he reasoned, would only give him the extra trouble of having to return for it later.

A flash of dark red, securing light later, Ra'uf passed alone out of the alleyway and proceeded towards the now not-so-distant skyscrapers.

- - - - - -

The last of the higher class buildings disappeared with startling immediacy, and Ra'uf was left staring open mouthed at what had appeared behind them. A throng of people and activity, thick together as shrubs in an untamed forest and undulating like an immense wave, leaped out at Ra'uf from behind the final wall and momentarily stunned him.

Hundreds..._thousands_ of people. Ra'uf had never seen so many in one spot, never imagined such a thick and condensed bundle of life. The orphanage had supported some hundreds of children, yes, but compared to this it had been mere pennies of civilization. Ra'uf was hesitant to so much as step amongst them, for fear of being swept away and trampled by the mass.

A slight wave of nausea ran through him, and a crippling sense of vertigo momentarily span the world. The noisome roar of the crowd had him stumbling, before Ra'uf caught himself and shook off the feeling. With a gulp, he resolved to continue, and after a few steps had been swept away into the throng.

The pushing and shoving of the crowd disoriented Ra'uf, but he found that if he simply kept pace with them the turbulence decreased, and he was able to notice many things. Unlike himself, the people around him were pale of skin and colorful of garb, sporting a great variety of hues and clothing types that granted most of them individuality from the next. The only common piece seemed to be a bulky form of back-pack, which but for a few sparse embellishments was identical from one to the next.

The structures close to the ground reminded Ra'uf of the bazaars of old he had researched and gaped at over the Internet. Sloped and frizzled roofs of thin but water-proof fabrics that hung over a small stock of wears, which could be the same item for twenty shops in a row or twenty different items within a single one. Members of the crowd routinely broke free of the traffic to flow in and out of these little inlets of commerce and briefly be tempted by something within, before leaving with either a heavier or unaltered back-pack and rejoining the crowd.

Rain poured down over this procession, but the sky-scraping towers against whom the bazaar was mere growths and foothills obstructed the weather, and the drizzle that made its way through deterred no one. This amazed Ra'uf most of all; it was like nature had been effectively turned off by the construction and technology. For, in addition to the lack of rain, lights dotted their way along the thousands of feet of building, so that the murky-black sky was cut by a million scattered glows and Ra'uf could see far further upwards than should ever have been possible.

The crowd bore him rapidly along this wonder, to a point where separate currents converged, and Ra'uf found himself herded steadily forward towards his intended destination; the city center.

– – –

"Tomatoes! Fresh Tomatoes! Fresh from the freezer!"

"Detergent! Get your laundry detergent here, for half the usual price! No refunds!"

"Axes! Get your just-sharpened, well-forged axes here! Great for all sorts of uses!"

"Camping gear!"

"Assorted tools!"

"Coffee and a dry seat!"

Ra'uf perked. The many calls of the vendors had thus far not appealed to him, but "Coffee and a dry seat" was a term Ra'uf was familiar with. Mr. Gershom had referenced the term fondly, as most characters in local books, stories, and websites did. It was a colloquialism for "Cafe", which were legendary for their plush comfort and irresistibly warm and delicious foods. Ra'uf had long dreamed of visiting one.

The crowd swarmed around him to his left. The crowd swarmed around him to his right. Tentatively, Ra'uf imitated the bumping and pushing tactic that all of the other members of the crowd were constantly employing and forced his way out. Near the edge, a particularly determined citizen stood up to his challenge of wills and pushed back, catching Ra'uf unawares and launching him out.

Stumbling, Ra'uf managed to steady his feet, but turned too late to catch the culprit. With a grumble, Ra'uf let the offense be and turned back towards the vendor who had promised him "Coffee and a dry seat". The man – a grungy and evil looking character disguised by a neat and formal suit – seemed to catch whiff of Ra'uf's interest. Homing in, the man made his case with much the same tone and language Ra'uf imagined a hungry Ekans would use to lure a Rattatat out of its hole.

"Hello there! Come right in! I can offer you the best Coffee this side of town, and our prices simply cannot be beaten. In fact, your lucky! Usually, we are teeming with customers, but you've come at just the time of day where quite and seclusion become part of the unique experience. And for free! Hahaha!"

Ra'uf blinked. The man had come startlingly close, revealing an unattractive odor and setting himself up in such a way that the rapid-fire dialogue was enforced by the rapid-fire impact of spit. The effect was considerably compelling.

"Uh..."

"Perfect! Just this way, young sir, and you will not regret it. Through that door, and then your in the hands of the pretty young lady."

The man winked at Ra'uf, an act that sent shudders up his spine, and then ushered him wordlessly through a dilapidated door that lead to what seemed a windowless room. Ra'uf felt two thrills of objection to this move; one produced by the apparently questionable state of the Cafe, and the other a sharp and unexpected resurgence of his terror from earlier. He was a Pokemon Trainer! Hadn't the man noticed? Or would a new mob be waiting for him inside, ready to chase him out with plush chairs and warm coffee?

Then, he was at and through the door, and the objections disappeared.

A quaint, tiny little room, well-kept and empty but for an unfamiliar metal contraption built into the far wall and a wooden desk before it. Within, sat an attractive young women whom Ra'uf imagined to be the one the vendor had directed him to. Groaning mentally, Ra'uf felt the contents of his stomach plummet and dread, colder than rain could ever hope to be, prepare him for the unwelcome encounter.

The women looked up from her desk, noticed him, and then turned back to her documents with an apparent lack of interest.

"No waiting list at the moment. Quite a lucky treat for you, I would say. The place is nearly empty. We'll require ten up front, and then your free to head through those doors and take the elevator to your desired level. You may stay no more than one hour, before we are forced to take a second charge of ten from you."

Ra'uf hesitated. The women had sounded fairly stern about her prices, like they were a preset and ironclad thing, but...wasn't he supposed to haggle? It was hard to tell, and Ra'uf had no faith in his oratorical skills. Either for asking her if the price was negotiable, or the negotiating itself. Gulping, Ra'uf decided that at least finding out was the responsible thing for a person with a limited budget to do.

"Um...would eight do?"

The lady froze, and stared up again from her papers as if encountering the most absurd thing to ever have walked before her. Her mouth opened for a moment, with purpose, and then closed again. Eyebrows creasing together, the lady turned her head to regard Ra'uf from the corner of her eyes and answered with cautious slowness.

"No. Eight will not do. Ten."

That was enough for Ra'uf. Uncomfortable, and feeling fairly certain now that this lady was neither to be trifled or haggled with, Ra'uf nodded and walked awkwardly forward. Withdrawing and then exchanging ten with the lady without the use of eye-contact, Ra'uf waited patiently as she deposited the money into a peculiar machine that dinged as it opened. When it closed with another ding, the other curious metal contraption in the room, the one built into the wall, made a comparatively masculine sound and began to part down the middle.

Ra'uf watched in wonder as the separate doors of the machine came to a halt fully hidden within the walls, and then stood there staring at it. The lady gave him another baffled look, which he missed, and then spoke with something akin to uncertain irritation in her voice.

"Please walk into the elevator, sir, and then choose which floor you would like to dine on –" The lady regarded him for another second " – by pressing the button with the matching number."

Ra'uf broke from his stupor, and nodded at the lady with a slight blush. Fascinated with the "Elevator", Ra'uf made his way towards and into the device carefully. Once past the retracted doors, Ra'uf searched the opposing wall for buttons, and then scanned the roof and floor when none could be found.

The lady cleared her throat, and Ra'uf started, turning swiftly towards the sound. Facing outwards, a previously unseen part of the elevator came into view, as well as the aforementioned buttons. The lady was sending the effects of a very serious, unfathomable expression his way, that Ra'uf instantly decided he wished to escape from. Uncertain that any button or floor meant more than another, Ra'uf pressed the one closest to him, and then watched with relief as the sliding metal doors closed.

With a clanking and whirring that again startled Ra'uf, the machine came to life, and then shocked him completely by moving.

– – –

The elevator passed upwards for some time. Ra'uf lost track of the length, though in truth he had never been paying attention to it in the first place. Struck by a sense of vertigo caused by his first ever experience in a moving mechanical cage, Ra'uf spent his initial few moments swaying for balance and the following few straining to maintain it.

With a clink and metal thud, the elevator came to a stop, the sliding metal doors opening to reveal a considerably more appealing environment.

A field of tables and cushy looking chairs, arranged in perfect symmetry and trimmed for comfort, spread across a neatly-kept landscape of varying altitudes. The floor dipped here and rose there, stretching the room to fifty feet at the lowest points and a bare ten at the highest. Down the middle of the room ran an elevated pathway, perhaps twenty feet from the ceiling, at the end of which was what looked to be the kitchen. Branching off to either side was the many levels of seating, which the occasional dimly-lit stairway granted access to.

Ra'uf walked gratefully out of the elevator and took a first few tentative steps onto the pathway. What the lady below had said was true; but for himself, the place seemed empty. The only sounds came from the mellow hum of the kitchen machines, an alluring reminder of the delicacies soon to be enjoyed. Ra'uf felt his mouth watering just from thinking about it, and took a few more, much-less wary steps in the direction of the kitchen.

The place was mildly lit, Ra'uf noticed, the many lamps like a dispersion of weak embers that only just cut through the darkness. It lent a sober attitude to the atmosphere, that along with the deep, bucolic colors of the furnishing and butter-warm temperature combined to create an utterly relaxing space. The greatest effect, however, came from the view provided by the glass windows that acted as all four walls and stretched the full distance from floor to ceiling. Presently, the storm outside was proudly framed by the glass, and it was impossible to miss even the dulled clattering of rain – but not a whisper of the harsh winds made it through.

Ra'uf reached the kitchen and stared around, baffled by the assortment of unfamiliar instruments. A series of machines with down-pointing faucets, labeled foreign and exotic sounding names, ran along one counter. Another contained all types of bread and bakery products. A third held sweeter looking foods. The fourth housed soups and other, heartier items. The location of plates, cups and silverware appeared to be a well-kept secret.

Ra'uf recognized none of it, not even the breads, and the prospect of exploring the many new tastes and textures appealed to him. Eagerly, Ra'uf scanned the counter tops for some hint of the common amenities; Plates, cups, forks and spoons. Sight alone yielded nothing. Sighing, but smiling patiently to himself, Ra'uf set about to fumbling around the kitchen for one of the required items. Picking up a strange lid that burned him as he did, Ra'uf made a note to incorporate caution into his search.

_No wonder they can afford to charge by the hour_, Ra'uf mused to himself, baffled. Where could they possibly be storing the cups? He had searched everywhere...

Laughing. A harsh, unforgiving abomination of a sound that existed somewhere obscure within the room, but somewhere close. Ra'uf started and swiveled to what seemed the point of origin, quickly revising his belief that he was the only occupant of the cafe.

The laughter picked up at the movement, bursting up a notch more harsh, before cutting off all together. Stifling sounds, like suppressed laughter, replaced it.

Ra'uf normally would have ignored the sound. Years of practice with his peers at both the orphanage and trainers school had made him impervious to antagonism, and goading him to respond was a difficult task for even the most skillful of the obnoxious. But there was something about the sound...something about its feminine pitch, its character, that seemed strikingly familiar. Curiosity got the better of him.

"Hello?" Ra'uf called out, simply, politely. He wondered what else to say.

A pause from the other end, and tell-tale hints of panic at her (Ra'uf presumed the gender) discovery. The voice appeared next in a muffled curse, and there was the sound of a chair scraping across the floor. From one floor down, on the right side, a figure could just barely be seen stretching to her feet through the darkness, its silhouette most definitely female. Resigned footsteps followed, along with nervous grumbling, and then the figure was climbing the stairway and it was all to clear who had come into view.

Marietta. Ra'uf's old classmate and one of two fellow graduates. His breath caught further down his throat than it usually did.

"Whats up?" She asked, casually, in an offhand sort of way, but Ra'uf could tell that behind it she was afraid. That confused him; _he_ was afraid, and had a reason for it. Ra'uf did not know how to speak to people, and Marietta was more than just a simple stranger. But what about Ra'uf could possibly be intimidating?

Marietta's hands had been stuffed in her pockets. Ra'uf's hung limply at his side. It was his turn, he realized unhappily, to respond.

"Nothing...I am, uh, looking for the silverware." Ra'uf grimaced. That couldn't be right...

Marietta, who had seemed unable to look at Ra'uf up to this point, pulled her gaze away from the floor and turned it to him. Malicious humor shined off of it, and her fear seemed temporarily forgotten.

"I could see that! What are you, dense? The silverware, cups, plates, everything – they are on the tables. Pick a spot you would like to sit and just take them with you."

Ra'uf flinched. It was like being verbally accosted, the way Marietta spoke. But, regardless, Ra'uf was not one to trade harsh language for harsh language. Blushing slightly, grinning nervously and scratching the back of his head, Ra'uf chuckled instead.

"Ah...your right. I can see them, now..." He replied, and then paused, swallowing a lump in the back of his throat.

"...Thank you"

Marietta froze, her mouth falling open with a small gasp. The malicious expression fell off her face, and she turned her head ashamedly back to the side. Ra'uf watched anxiously, afraid he had done something wrong, to distress her such. Was it his tone? Was he being overly thankful? His mind raced. This was his first chance to speak to one of his classmates, to bridge the gap between them and get to know one as friends, that he had perhaps ever had. The desire to befriend all of them had never left; given this rare opportunity, he could not afford to make the awkward mistakes he was so prone to.

Ra'uf gulped and prepared to say something that would remedy his mistake when Marietta beat him to the punch.

"Your, um...your welcome." She stuttered, obviously at a great cost of effort, but sincerely enough. Ra'uf stared. When had he ever heard one of his classmates being polite? It was unheard of. He smiled, and felt suddenly bold.

"I have not yet chosen a place to sit. Is there...an extra seat, where you are?" Ra'uf tried, the words flowing much smoother than they normally did.

There was something about Marietta being suddenly and so uncharacteristically polite that made him hopeful. Perhaps she would rebuff him, treat him to a sharp word and turn on her heel. But Ra'uf was used to sharp words – and usually, they were provided for much less adequate reasons than an undesired reaching out. He would be willing to, just this once, risk being hurt in order to risk making friends.

Marietta stiffened, and her arms, which had migrated from her pockets to fold over her chest, fell from position. Shyly turning her head a scant few inches back towards him, she revealed something to Ra'uf that he had not expected to see on any face but his own; hope. For a brief moment, she looked so vulnerable, so unbelievably human with the emotion. Ra'uf pondered this, but did not remark; only looked on with restrained eagerness, praying that she would accept his offer.

Huffing, Marietta caught herself and jerked her head back to the side, arms again twining tightly together. But, in spite of herself, she could not quite erase the expression from her face.

"Yes." She said finally, feigning but not quite achieving displeasure. Her head remained stubbornly cast to the side.

Ra'uf grinned, the hope he had been felt earlier multiplying several fold, until it filled him like a radiant warmth. Strangely, with its coming, the fear and the uncertainty in him rapidly vanished, as if the feelings were ice cubes under exposure to fire for the first time. Within moments they were gone, and Ra'uf felt limitlessly brave, as if there was nothing left to lose and all the world left to gain.

Marietta stayed fixed in place, as if to desperately prove her disdain for him. Ra'uf briefly crossed his own arms, studied her, and then closed the distance between them. Reaching out, Ra'uf caught her by the arm, turned, and gently tugged in the direction of the machines. Marietta jumped at the touch, and then gaped at it, staring as if it was a mythical creature clutching her arm and not her classmate of five years.

"Come. I have no idea how to use these machines – you will have to show me. And tell me what is good. I have never heard of these drinks."

And with that, Ra'uf turned and made his way to the coffee machines. Flustered, Marietta let Ra'uf's gentle but firm grip guide her on, spluttering but not objecting.

--- --- ---

When the Mochas, as Marietta insisted on, had been obtained, Ra'uf let Marietta lead him back to her seat. She had chosen a lowered spot with its back to the elevated pathway, and that was still high enough to provide a wonderful view. Ra'uf seated himself across from her, and then found himself again at a loss for words; not because of fear, but inexperience. He had socialized few enough times during his entire lifetime to count on his fingers, and was not quite prepared to take the reigns.

Marietta, fortunately, made it easy on him. Whereas he could think of nothing to say, she obviously was in no short supply of words. At first, it had started as her simply answering a question at the coffee machines, nervously straining just to provide the answer. But as Ra'uf made no move to curb her reply, and interjected only to encourage her, she had eventually been lured by his friendliness into a state of unrestrained babbling.

Ra'uf liked this just fine. He had never been overly talkative, and only had experience with the opinions of a sparse few people. To meet someone new was fascinating, and he learned something new about her with every word she said. That she seemed content to only teach, and do very little learning herself, was also fine with Ra'uf. Letting Marietta talk solved the problem of having to formulate words himself.

" I went to bed early at the inn and woke at around four in the morning, in order to get a head start on the day..."

"Oh, I caught a Chimchar! Its the most adorable, round-eyed thing I've ever seen. Of course, it could burn me to a crisp, if it tried..."

"I plan to spend a week in the city before heading to the southern training area and taking up a mission escorting..."

"Purple, I would say, is my favorite color – though I do like blue and green..."

Ra'uf nodded, smiled, and listened to it all. There were points she rambled a little too severely to be stood, but at these Ra'uf simply broke in with a question and shifted the topic. Then, within moments, Marietta would be off again. She was absolutely the most voluble creature he had ever met, but it was riveting to listen.

_The most interesting thing about her_, Ra'uf thought to himself,_ is how she fluctuates. One moment she will sound terribly cruel, unintelligent, and immature. The next, she is an illuminated genius, with a very kind heart. I wonder how she can be both – and which she is more truly. _

Pokemon, she felt, required strict teaching – but it was vital they not be abused, or unappreciated. People, on the other hand, she felt "all deserve to be drowned next to a starving Sharpedo". Ra'uf had smiled happily upon hearing the first, and decided smartly upon silence when hearing the second. But, ultimately, Ra'uf found that he liked Marietta. She was quirky, intelligent, and behind it all, Ra'uf saw a vast potential for kindness. The longer she talked, the more it surfaced in her; and the more Ra'uf began to enjoy the conversation.

A beeping was what finally brought their time together to an end. Cutting through the din and making both of them, who had become very much absorbed in the presence of the other, jump, came a brief series of beeps followed by the screeching of an intercom. Then –

"Mary, your time is up. Please come down now, or prepare to pay for a second hour of service." Click.

The interruption seemed to make Marietta realize, for the first time, that she had been talking nonstop for near an hour. Staring blankly at the intercom, Marietta blinked, and a decidedly dazed look fell over her. Not turning to look back at Ra'uf, she grunted to herself, as if vaguely acknowledging what the intercom had said, and then stood up.

The movement was clumsy and disoriented. Ra'uf watched sadly as she rose, knowing that she would soon be leaving and that in a profession like theirs they may never end up meeting again. He felt like, finally, after all this time, they had become friends – and now it was over. There was an odd mix of flowing happiness, the sense of accomplishment, and a terribly hollow feeling of loss and regret.

Turning away from the intercom, Marietta looked at Ra'uf again for the first time since standing up, and smiled. A similar set of emotions seemed to be playing across her face, but for one, which Ra'uf could not place. It was similar to the one from earlier, and yet different in some important but subtle way. But, again, she seemed hesitant to meet his gaze, and very shy.

"Well...good bye. Thank you –," Marietta said the word as if tasting it, rolling it around on her tongue for the first time and then smiling as if she liked what she had found, –" for listening."

Then, turning to leave, she knocked over her cup of coffee. The liquid poured forth from the cup, swiftly spreading across the table until the whole of the surface had been coated in brown. The spill was heavy, and cold; Marietta had taken very little time to drink from it.

Marietta cursed. Ra'uf flinched at the sound of the profanity, but remained otherwise seated and calm. Gazing at the liquid, Ra'uf sighed, and reaching forward tore a number of napkins from the portable dispenser that had been there along with silverware. Tossing them over the spill, Ra'uf set about to the simple task of cleaning up.

Focused on the mess, Ra'uf did not see Marietta's hand reach for the very same stack of napkins and then pause, halfway, as she was beaten to them. He did not see her hand remain suspended in the air, nor witness the stunned expression her face as he wiped the spill away for her. Those final few moments, which were like the crossing of a brink, passed Ra'uf by completely. When he looked up again, the shift had been made; and that he witnessed very clearly.

Ra'uf had no idea why she was looking at him like that, nor any clue what exactly the look was. But it terrified him. Cold shivers coursed across his entire body, the goose bumps raising wherever the wave. His breath caught in his throat, and he had the sudden urge, the sudden need, to be gone.

Swallowing, Ra'uf tossed the last of the used napkins back onto the table and stood.

"You are welcome." He said.

Now the one averting his gaze, Ra'uf left, struggling to walk at a controlled pace even as the fight or flight instincts within him screamed at him to run.

--- --- ---

Marietta watched Ra'uf go, cursing herself for scaring him away and wishing that he would stay. It did something weird to her heart, to watch him leave, as if she was stretching after him and his every furthered step caused her to tear. It made her awkward, and unhappy, to be feeling whatever she was feeling. And yet it could not be helped; she had the inexplicable, irrepressible desire to be with him again.

How had it happened? When she had first saw Ra'uf come into the cafe she had been interested, true, but the feeling had been different. She had been curious; Ra'uf was a conundrum, a long-existing puzzle that passed her several times a day and never seemed closer to being solved. He was different, she knew. All of her friends and classmates knew it, that he and Latif were strange. But that was it; a shallow recognition that they were different, with absolutely no gossip or personal experience to give depth to the observation.

Strange...and handsome. Those were the only two details Marietta had been able to perceive about Ra'uf over a period of five years, and she had never dared to share the second. She had kept it her secret, and made it a sort of game. Ra'uf was the intriguing mystery man; she was the unsuspected spy, whose eyes followed him hoping to learn of some secretive and revealing detail, and was never caught.

And, if she was to be honest with herself, she had envied him. Ra'uf's strangeness, his content aloofness from the crowd, had given him a sort of power. Ra'uf's isolation set him apart, made him special, unique and strong, as she and the others had always wished to be but had always been too weak for. All five of them hated each other, somewhere, hated the way they were together and yet could not stand to be alone. Marietta wished that she had been strong enough, that she had taken the opportunity to break away and then push through the loneliness until it no longer bothered her; but she couldn't, and hadn't.

That was why she had been feeling so good, that particular day. She had graduated; braved the torrid plains of Hiraizumi, caught her Chimchar, and survived to return home and earn her Trainers License. But the real prize had been that she, and only she of all her friends, had made it; and so finally, after all this time, she had been set apart. On her own she had been unable to face the desolation of solitude; but now it had been forced upon her, involuntarily. She was being made, forced to grow up and become stronger; and she was happy for it, happy for her easy ticket out, happy that the first step which she had never been able to overcome had simply been removed.

Her new sense of self-dependence had been such that when she had seen Ra'uf enter she had proudly ignored him, kept herself silent and hidden, feeling for once like his equal and enjoying the thought that she did not need even him. By force of habit, however, she had kept a sentry on him out of the corner of her eye, eagerly scanning for some escaped key to his secrets. And, funnily enough, she had learned something about him; for all his grace, Ra'uf could be surprisingly featherbrained, his brain obviously off flying somewhere high in the clouds to not notice that the cups and plates he was looking for were arranged very neatly on the tables he had been staring directly at.

The laughter had revealed her, against her will. And, once brought out, she had found herself more than a little embarrassed and unsure. Ra'uf was something she did not understand, something seemingly superhuman, for none of the humans she had ever had experience with acted anything like him. In truth, she was scared of him. There was also her secret history of spying, the shameful act of taking too great an interest, of admiring his looks...to be brought face to face with him was more than a little distressing, after all she had done about him without his knowledge.

But she had still wanted to meet him. She still thought him handsome, strange, and intriguing. Worth, at least, a little bit of discovering. And he had given her the chance – given her an hour with which to question, to surgically explore his character, poking and prodding at her own discretion. And hour which she had spent, instead, maundering like a fool. Ra'uf had taken control of the discovery process, performed the surgery on her, and she had never even noticed.

Because, in truth, she had been having the time of her life. She had never met a more caring, selfless, and patient creature in her life. Ra'uf had not only seemed content to let her express herself, but happy to. To feel like he was respecting her, listening intently and indiscriminately, had been the most liberating experience of her life. With her friends, she had never spoken long enough to fill in a full thirty seconds. With Ra'uf, there had been so much to say, and no where near enough time, in the end, to say it all. She had not realized her own ability to simply talk. She had always fancied herself more quite.

And as the time passed, as his kindness continued and she continued to open up to him...Marietta liked not only who she had revealed herself to be, the impact Ra'uf's presence seemed to have on her personality, but who Ra'uf himself had appeared to be. Kindness. That characterized Ra'uf in a word. She had slowly become happier and happier with herself, and then, even more slowly, become happier and happier with Ra'uf.

Until the very end. When, without so much as blinking about it, he took the napkins and cleaned up the coffee spill for her. No one, not one of her classmates, would have even thought to have done the deed, unless some barbed and hurtful sentiment could be achieved through the act. Until that moment, she had not really been focusing on him, so caught up as she was with revealing herself. She had not noticed her opinion of him changing, growing, gaining stature.

A single moment of clarity, in which she saw him and again thought him handsome on the outside, but for the first time thought him exceedingly beautiful on the inside. Something had happened to her heart. Like a click, from off to on. And now it could not be turned back off; Ra'uf was leaving, taking the last through steps into the elevator and pushing the buttons which would send it on its way, but her heart could not be stopped from beating a mile a minute. Beating at the pace it would need to maintain in order to leap into action, sprinting between the tables and down the elevated pathway until she came at last to a stop next to him. Like she so very much wanted to do.

The elevator doors closed shut with a clank, that echoed around the room and joined the hum of coffee machines and muffled raindrops as the only sounds present. Marietta was all alone again, she realized. And in spite of the warmth, she felt very cold.

_I will see him again_, she decided. Somehow, sometime, she would make it happen. This was not resolved.


End file.
